The most extravagant detail of all, however, isn’t in the first-class cabin itself, but in its bathrooms. They are large, with an expansive sink and counter, and there’s a window. When you walk in, the window, the surface of which is covered in liquid crystals, appears to be translucent. (Who could look in from the outside to invade your privacy, I’ll never know.) When you lock the door it transforms, as if by magic, into a transparent surface. Where else can you shut yourself in a bathroom and gaze out at the world from 30,000 feet?This would seem to have little to do with REFR or SPD, apart from being another scrap of evidence showing that technology was passing them by. Yet, some very vocal commentators immediately began to insist that the shade in question was REFR's SPD, in spite of there being no supporting evidence for that assertion.
Fast forward to April 1st, appropriately enough, when REFR's loyal one-man licensee Inspectech puts out a press release talking about their umpteenth trade show appearance in Germany, and, oh by the way, the Qantas Airbus lavatory window mentioned in that Goldberger article? Ours.
Seriously (and it being April 1st I waited awhile to be sure), they treated the Goldberger article as if that was the first they even knew about it. Perhaps even more dodgily, they chopped up the quote above, carefully removing references to liquid crystal technology (even though that is an integral part of the I-Shade product).
It recalls the Jeep Rescue fiasco of 2004, where SPD was apparently built into the sunroof of this showcase vehicle, but almost nobody noticed it. Likewise, the existence of SPD in the lavatory window, assuming it is in fact there, totally escapes Goldberger's notice, yet the fact that the window gets mentioned in the article at all is portrayed as some kind of PR coup for SPD technology.
Meanwhile, REFR stock, which had a rather big run on the article comments, doesn't seem to have reacted at all to the confirming PR. Maybe April Fools is just running long this year.
