Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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?"

17 of 213 comments (clear)

  1. 1984 by CrosbieSmith · · Score: 4, Funny

    Aaarrgh! My screen is watching me!

    1. Re:1984 by Judg3 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Ah, you mean this chapter. And indeed, it's almost true now:

      "Behind Winston's back the voice from the telescreen was still babbling away
      about pig-iron and the overfulfilment of the Ninth Three-Year Plan. The
      telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston
      made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover,
      so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque
      commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of
      knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on
      what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was
      guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But
      at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to
      live--did live, from habit that became instinct--in the assumption that every
      sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement
      scrutinized."

      --
      Looking for hardware (Currently need: Large Etch-a-Sketch) Have one? See my journal!
  2. In Soviet Russia... by Quixote · · Score: 4, Funny
    OK, you can start posting the variants of "In Soviet Russia, the monitor watch you!" now...

  3. So much for privacy by wakeboard · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That opens up an interesting question, can some one exploite this to see what you are doing at your desk?

    ie picking your nose =]

  4. Oh dear lord by mao+che+minh · · Score: 3, Funny
    We will go from having trolls posting images of the goatse guy, to posting images of "themselves", so to speak.

    Ok, I'll just come out and say it: ball sack mashed against the screen = a shockingly revolting image to be sent around the world.

  5. I just want by scorp1us · · Score: 5, Interesting

    To be able to position a webcam from computer A in front of a monitor from computer B, and reverse it. So each camera is looking at each other's monitor.

    Then I want to display crap on the screen which then gets interpreted as data (Imagine a 4x4 checkerboard, black=0, white=1, so each screen displays 16 bits at a time)

    Now use this to bridge two networks.

    Questions: How many cells can be fit on a monitor?
    How fast can you change/read the data?
    Ideally if your webcam is 320x200, you could get 64kbits per flash. If you can use 4 colors instead of two, you're upto ISDN speeds...

    --
    Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
    1. Re:I just want by B3ryllium · · Score: 3, Funny

      But the real question is ...

      ... was the UDP packet a redhead?

  6. 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.

    --
    "Linux doesn't exist. Everyone knows Linux is an unlicensed version of Unix"- Kieren O'Shaughnessy
    1. Re:disturbing ramifications... by ufoo · · Score: 3, Funny

      Just get a nice 19" diagonal picture of yourself to put up while you are out smoking.

      --

      --
      Annotateit at Annotateit.com
    2. 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.

      --
      I do not have a signature
  7. 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.

    __ cheap web site hosting

  8. Imagine the spam... by scorp1us · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now spammers can see if you're really fat or not. I can also show them my schlong, so they won't 1) tell me how to make it longer and 2) tell me how I can increase my breast size.

    --
    Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
  9. Tsk tsk, you didn't read the article... by PseudoThink · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Toshiba Matsushita Display expects the display with the image capturing function to open new consumer and business applications. The company expects the technology to be used in security applications such as fingerprint authentification." lol..."authentification"...

  10. Hmph! by MoeMoe · · Score: 3, Funny

    In reality, this is just a way for computer monitors to get back at us for staring at them constantly for 16 hours a day...

    --
    Business \Busi"ness\, n.;
    A scam in which all people involved perceive as beneficial...
  11. Finally! by dfiguero · · Score: 5, Funny

    No more cracking the photocopier glass to get a butt shot ;)

    --
    My penguin ate my sig
  12. 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?

  13. 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.

    --
    www.eFax.com are spammers