The film-based materials science behind Nest Thermostat E’s frosted display
By Giancarlo & Kevin
When our industrial designer, Sung, showed a first conceptual rendering of the new Nest Thermostat E, we were blown away. It was a seamless glowing pebble, floating on a white wall, with warm glowing numbers on the screen.
The design intent really resonated with us. Instead of making more “smart” products that fill your walls and tables with harsh and technical black screens, we would be creating a product with understated intelligence, a product that gracefully blended into the background, a product that was as much a design element as a piece of technology, a product that echoed the materials of the home, all while being priced for less than the company’s other thermostat offering.
Our first reaction was, “Wow! This is amazing!” and our second reaction was, “Well… how are we going to make this happen?”
Based on the renderings, it looked like we wanted to have some sort of dynamic glowing interface that could live behind a smooth light-colored surface — something that would not be visible when the interface was off, but where dynamic numbers or other elements could glow, almost as if they were magically floating on the surface of the product. There was no clear indication of where the display began or ended — it was as if the entire product was a display.
After searching for any products that had hidden displays, we couldn’t find anything out on the market that came close to meeting our goals, so we knew that we would have to develop some new technology.
We broke the problem down into two areas:
- Generating the dynamic glowing images
- Finding light-colored materials that could not only hide the display’s boundaries but also allow sharp images to shine through
We gathered a wide range of display technology samples and materials. However, after countless prototypes, we still hadn’t found a way to recreate the drama of the ID rendering. We found images were either too dim, the boundaries of the display too obvious and dark, or the image became unreadable. Every change that improved one aspect came at the cost of degrading another.
Eventually, just as we were about to give up, we tried a material that was historically used for an entirely different application. This film, when combined with a white ink layer, and laminated to our front lense allowed more of the desired light to pass through from the LCD, while still remaining opaque and light-colored enough to hide the boundaries of the system when off. Of course, this was only the starting point. We found creative ways to situate the display as close to the film as possible in order to keep the image sharp, while preventing the materials from wetting out against each other, which would create dark spots. We worked with teams across Nest to make the product both manufacturable and beautiful.
And so, after a long and arduous process, we’ve built a product that is truly unique, innovative and thoroughly Nesty. We’ll know we’ve done our jobs if Nest Thermostat E owners don’t notice the product. And of course, when it helps people save energy.
Join the conversation at Nest’s Developer community. Get started with Nest Developers. Or explore careers with Nest.
The information contained in this blog is provided only as general information for educational purposes, and may or may not be up to date. The information is provided as-is with no warranties. This blog is not intended to be a factual representation of how Nest’s products and services actually work. No license is granted under any intellectual property rights of Nest, Google, or others.
