Sharp has developed a display in which each pixel includes a sensor so that the device can double as a scanner.

The system can also be used as a multi-point touch screen registering more than one user input at once, something that is hard to do using conventional input matrices.

"It is very exciting," said Ralf, Schafer, public-relations manager for Sharp Microelectronics in Europe. "It could be used for instance to resize a picture using two fingers."

Schafer has yet to see the Apple iPhone that allows you to perform this kind of action with your finger and thumb (though this does not use Sharp technology). But he points out that there are many other uses for the system, too.

The prototype system, built in Japan using work done at Sharp's laboratories in Oxford, is a 3.5in QVGA (320 x 480) resolution colour display could for instance be used to scan business cards. Sharp is developing a system for using it for fingerprint recognition.

"It is really a question of what the programmers want to do with it," said Shafer. "And there seems to be no reason why it should not be used in larger screen wsizes."

The display uses a form of silicon caused continuous grain, which has a higher electron mobility than amorphous silicon and enables a higher scale of integration, allowing for instance the active matrix and drivers circuits to sit on the same plane.

Schafer said the first products using the technology will appear in about a year, probably initially in Japan.