Think of a bridal registry you walk through your chosen store with a handheld scanner and scan the items you want.

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Dr Sheridon has come up with a so-called wand an electronic stick that can hold ten full-size books and also transfer text on to a sheet of Gyricon if a user runs the wand over the surface like a handheld scanner.

ECONOMIST: Showing off

George Sutherland, professor of cardiac imaging at St George's, London, shows how the portable handheld ultrasound scanner works.

BBC: How the hand-held ultrasound scanner works

New Zealand's Industrial Research looks to be attracting quite a bit of interest in its prototype handheld 3D scanner, snagging fellow New Zealanders Weta Digital to help put the technology through its paces and now hoping the police will hop on board to put the scanner to more grisly uses.

ENGADGET: Industrial Research creates 3D crime scene/movie set scanner