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LCD Display/Image Capture Device

Posted by michael on from the telescreen dept.

Jon writes "Remember jokes about clueless newbies trying to fax documents by holding them up to the monitor? Perhaps they were just ahead of their time. Toshiba has developed a combined LCD/optical sensor, according to EETimes. It isn't monitor sized yet, but in a few years, perhaps?"

5 of 213 comments (clear)

  1. disturbing ramifications... by Schwartzboy · · Score: 3, Insightful
    If this does become technically feasible and relatively inexpensive, who wants to make a bet on the display that's commonly hooked up to next generation of office desktop machines?
    Certain companies already monitor their employees to what I believe is an obsessive extent, and the ability to take a "scan" of what's in front of the monitor every X minutes is something I can see being used and abused by the "w3 0wnz j00" philosophy that a lot of businesses have with respect to their employees. Worse yet, look at this technology after a few iterations and a few million dollars, and you've got screen = scanner = webcam.

    In the dark, uncertain future of cubicle dwellers, there will be no need for paranoia...your computer is, in fact, watching you.

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    1. Re:disturbing ramifications... by ichimunki · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Um, how hard is it to build a monitor with a built-in webcam, or even to affix one to existing monitors? Or are you trying to say that companies would only do this if they could somehow do it without anyone knowing for sure there was a camera in or on the monitor? Maybe a fixed lens that was not integral to the screen itself would be too easy to cover up with a post-it note. But what good does it do to have a live image of someone sitting at a monitor? Have you ever watched a webcam? It's incredibly dull and not likely to tell the company anything except that their employees loked bored or frustrated most of the time.

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  2. No sale by Mattygfunk1 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    This is solving a problem that has already been solved.

    Faxes around my office are usually printed computer documents that perhaps have a hand written signature. This fits beautifully into the sending slot. Why would anyone want to stand there holding the thing still while they press a button / click a mouse. No way.

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  3. Re:Why? by Anonvmous+Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "A monitor is an output device. A scanner (optical reader, whatever) is an input device. Why merge the two when they should be mutually exclusive? "

    Does your keyboard have a caps-lock light?

  4. Not a camera - a scanner by wowbagger · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is not a device that can form an image from an object at a non-trivial distance from the display - this is a device that only images an object placed against it.

    I would expect the primary intent of a device like this would be in a web-pad type device. Picture a clipboard, but thicker. Your customer hands you a printed item (work order, recept, whatever). You place the item face down against the display and push a button on the side. You remove the item from the display, and verify the scan took, then hand the item back to the customer.

    This would no more allow your monitor to image what is going on in the room than putting your flat bed scanner up on edge and leaving the top open would.

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