LCD Screen With Embedded Optical Sensors

dk3nn3dy writes "Sharp has developed a LCD display with optical sensors built into the displays pixels, without requiring a touch-sensitive film to be bonded on top of the regular screen. The optical sensor is similar to that used in scanners, allowing for notes or business cards to be scanned by the screen itself. As the optical recognition technology is built into the pixels it also simplifies tactile recognition based on simultaneously touching multiple points. Future uses include fingerprint authentication on the screen of your mobile phone or PDA, or iPhone style touch recognition. Volume production will start next spring."

In Soviet Eurasia, TV watches...

[VValdo]

Winston sprang to attention in front of the telescreen, upon which the image of a youngish woman, scrawny but muscular, dressed in tunic and gym-shoes, had already appeared.

'Arms bending and stretching!' she rapped out. 'Take your time by me. One, two, three, four! One, two, three, four! Come on, comrades, put a bit of life into it! One, two, three, four! One, two, three, four!'

[......]

  'Smith!' screamed the shrewish voice from the telescreen. '6079 Smith W.! Yes, you! Bend lower, please! You can do better than that. You're not trying. Lower, please! That's better, comrade. Now stand at ease, the whole squad, and watch me.'

A sudden hot sweat had broken out all over Winston's body. His face remained completely inscrutable. Never show dismay! Never show resentment! A single flicker of the eyes could give you away. He stood watching while the instructress raised her arms above her head and -- one could not say gracefully, but with remarkable neatness and efficiency -- bent over and tucked the first joint of her fingers under her toes.

'There, comrades! That's how I want to see you doing it. Watch me again. I'm thirty-nine and I've had four children. Now look.' She bent over again. 'You see my knees aren't bent. You can all do it if you want to,' she added as she straightened herself up. 'Anyone under forty-five is perfectly capable of touching his toes.

--George Orwell, "1984"

W

Re:Queue the Big-Brother/Orwell freaks in.....

[cellocgw]

Even with it's current capability, I'd suppose various image disgrognification algorythms could discern something that isn't pressed to the screen.
No it couldn't, any more than a blank sheet of photographic paper could produce an image (all by itself). Simply put: unless there is a lens, or a pinhole (Google for things like "pinhole camera"), or as someone mentioned, each detector element has a drastically limited field of view, like a dragonfly eye, you won't get an image. Each element in this case just collects the light that hits it. Just like a proximity scanner.
If you project an image, using an external lens, then you'll get a picture. Otherwise not.