All Seeing Screen

I read in a Slashdot article yesterday that Apple has patented the concept of a display that is capable of taking pictures as well as displaying them.

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.

I think that sounds like a pretty neat idea, but the only applications of its use I have heard is for teleconferencing and to save space in cellphones / PDAs. Sure seems like a lot of trouble just to avoid a tiny little camera at the top of your screen.

How else might this technology be used?

1. To spy on employees
2. Those screens embedded in the floor at Red Robin are, uh, dangerously placed
3. To sell at an insane markup and make mad profitz
4. To allow Apple to record everything you ever do and sell it back to you for $1.99