“We could soon see a new kind of display screen from computer maker Apple – one that simultaneously takes pictures while showing images. The clever idea is to insert thousands of microscopic image sensors in-between the liquid crystal display cells in the screen. Each sensor captures its own small image, but software stitches these together to create a single, larger picture,” Barry Fox reports for New Scientist. “A large LCD screen filled with image sensors would be ideal for videoconferencing, Apple suggests, as participants would always appear to look straight into the “camera”. The technique could also add a camera function to a cellphone or PDA without wasting space, and light from the screen should help illuminate a subject.”
“The more sensors there are, the wider and clearer the image. Sketches accompanying the company’s patent show as many sensors as liquid crystal cells in a screen. If some of the sensors have different focal lengths, switching between them would make the screen behave like a zoom lens,” Fox reports.
Full article with link to patent application here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “scrounger” for the heads up.]
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