Using the media browser to alter a specific field

Hi, I've got a slightly unusual goal for what I'd like to achieve, was wondering if anyone has used Media in this way.

First, I'd like to have a user click a link which opens the media browser, selects an image, sets this image as the value for a field on the user object and then closes.

Second is to have the media browser open in a ctools modal as opposed to a jQuery UI dialog. I figure that it's either style over it (horrible) or define a new widget which would largely be a copy of the media browser but with different markup and JS.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!