Sharp has announced a new LCD display that comes complete with a scanner-like optical sensor embedded in each pixel. The new technology turns the display into a multi-touch screen similar to the iPhone’s but thinner and clearer.

Like the iPhone, the new Sharp display will recognize multiple touches, letting users manipulate images with more than one finger, such as tapping an image with two fingers to enlarge or reduce a map.

More impressively, the scanning functionality of the display will digitize anything pressed against it. You can place a business card on it, for example, and it will be scanned in and digitized instantly.

Volume production of the new display will begin in Spring 2008.

[Source: WirelessWatch]