Apple Patents iSight Cam Behind Laptop Screen, Will Hear From Errol Morris’s Lawyers

A recent Apple patent for an iSight camera located behind the screen instead of above it sounds like a cool idea–too bad a system just like it has already been invented.

By the director of some of Apple’s most memorable commercials, no less! Errol Morris’s awesomely-named Interrotron system captures the first-person interviews for his documentaries and commercials by using two cameras with mirrored, teleprompter-like screens in front of them, each with the image of the other person’s face.

Apple’s patent works the exact same way, and can eliminate the lack of intimacy brought about by looking just above or below the eyes of the person you’re cybering with. Of course there’s no real promise of this being integrated into a real product anytime soon, as the tech for placing a working camera behind a traditional laptop LCD is still a ways away.

But OK, while we’re talking Errol Morris and Interrotrons, what the hell:

[Ars Technica, Apple Insider]