The fundamental proposition of consumer technology is as follows: the closer we are to using the gadgets featured in the last 10 years of crappy spy thrillers and action movies, the more progress we've made. That's how the Surface came to be, and how we've ended up with the fingerprint-grabbing, light-sensing LCD panel. AU Optronics has developed systems that can handle both without interfering with a panel's display capabilities. While this tech is not likely to quickly replace the dirt-cheap light sensors that manage screen brightness now, LCD fingerprinting could add an interesting security layer for increasingly common touchscreen devices, among other things. [Tech-On via Gearlog]