Sharp Laboratories of Europe of UK and Sharp Corp. have jointly developed a 2.6-inch LCD panel incorporating an image sensor in a drive circuit, and unveiled it at the ISSCC 2007 event being held in San Francisco. The panel features the VGA resolution (640 x 480) and definition of 300 ppi.

Sharp has demonstrated a LCD screen with embeded image sensor. Instead of adding a seperated thumb printer scanner module, you can directly put your thumb on the display screen and it can read your thumb print directly.

According to the report, Sharp is using their proprietary TFT fabrication technology called continuous grain (CG)-Silicon TFT process. This technology enables the integration of circuits with multiple functions on a single glass substrate by the same film formation process.

Side effect of this implementation? You get to see more thumb print stamp on your screen!

Source