And there's me thinking that the term "the other side" had been consigned to history after the flood of channels. Now that you have a double sided TV, all we now need are two channels that are showing enough good to make the expense worth the effort.

An immediate consumer application for this would be in gaming. This is a potential cure for those frustrating moments in COD4 or Madden where the other player see what you are about to do.

Only 30" widescreen monitors have more resolution than this new screen. I want one!

I would have thought this would be rather more useful for laptops, you could have the effect of one of those tablet PC's without all the nasty weak hinges!

Plus - picture windows! Are the screens transparent when off? You could have some very nice screens as windows, advertising on the outside, TV on the inside and a window the rest of the time!

I fail to share the authors enthusiam- this seems like a really silly idea

why would you want a display to show a different image on both sides? I can only think of tradeshows as an example of where this would be useful, and that's not a huge market. Plus 2 LCD displays back to back works just fine, really. It would have to be cheaper (or at least similarly priced), to be worthwhile. A shared display for clamshells? okay, but still, big deal?

Whose living room is big enough to have a TV in the centre with chairs on either side and how are you going to stop the sound from one program interferring with the other?

Those viper engines are going to be a bit conspicuous while the Dingles are herding their sheep (or whatever it is they do).

Yeah - Battleships anyone?

Window insert/replacement.

Add a camera, and you can still see out, you can switch your boring street view to something on TV or to a landscape of your choosing, and best of all, you can present whatever face you want to the world.

Switch on a Yahoo! advert whenever Google's Street View team are coming through, put up semipermanent "Scientology is a Cult" placards, the possibilities are endless!

Sorry, it was the first thing that popped into my head when I read the headline - meaning it would be an ideal screen for head-to-head two player games.

Agree wholeheartedly with ANtti - this is ideal for head-to-head gaming - no chance the other player can 'cheat' by seeing what you are doing.... or could be used in quiz games etc so others cant see your answer

... it can be used for pornography.

I haven't a clue what that way would be but porn always leads the way when it comes to adopting and adapting new technology.

It's obviously been designed at the behest of IBM, who wish to reintroduce the 5252!

Paris, 'cos two of her back-to-back I can think of a sensible use for.