If deployed, it means that a passport, for example, could be quickly scanned using the system and its laser speckles recorded and encoded in a unique serial number or onto a database before being issued.

BBC: NEWS | Technology | Laser spots paper 'fingerprints'

Using the reverse approach, Sian Bonnell, a British photographer, has photographed a jelly mould with a pinhole camera, then digitally scanned the paper negative and produced a laser print.

ECONOMIST: The daguerreotype is back

It has also scanned the surface of the planet using Mola (Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter), which beams an infrared laser pulse towards the surface of the Red Planet 10 times a second.

BBC: New view of giant Martian volcano