Japan developing 3D gadgets

Researchers in Japan are developing a gadget that could enable people to hold a three-dimensional image of someone in the palm of their hand, says AFP.

They hope the gCubik, which is still at the prototype stage, will later be developed to move in real time and appear to speak.

"The ultimate image we have in mind is having a small person in your palm," said Shunsuke Yoshida, one of the researchers involved in the study at Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology.

The affordability and growing popularity of colour laser printers is raising concerns among civil liberties advocates that your privacy may not be worth the paper you're printing on, says USA Today.

More manufacturers are outfitting greater numbers of laser printers with technology that leaves microscopic yellow dots on each printed page to identify the printer's serial number - and ultimately, you, says the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, one of the leading watchdogs of electronic privacy.

The dots, invisible to the naked eye, can be seen using a blue LED light and are used by authorities such as the Secret Service to investigate counterfeit bills made with laser printers, says Lorelei Pagano, director of the Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group.