The idea is simple: you take a photo of your surroundings and set this photo as your background or wallpaper.

I had been thinking of doing this to my monitor(s) here at Zoom for a while when I ran across this article at Smashing Magazine detailing the process and showing some really cool applications. And not just to your monitor or laptop but also your PSP or phone as well. Here are a few that really caught my eye.

You can find a Transparent Screens Flicker Group here and a tutorial for creating your own here.