Unlike the V5, this machine boasts an optical drive, but it does weigh a heftier 4.79 pounds.

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An optical-character-recognition machine for the blind that's capable of reading most types of printed text aloud, the CCD flatbed scanner, speech-recognition software, the first synthesizer that created sounds virtually indistinguishable from those produced by their acoustic counterparts, and a whole bunch of other nifty things we can barely comprehend came from Ray's brain.

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Among them: I-Stat, owned by Abbott Laboratories (nyse: ABT - news - people ), which makes a handheld device for basic chemistry that uses so-called ion-selective membranes, and Cholestech (nasdaq: CTEC - news - people ), which has a lipids testing machine and relies on a glucometerlike optical reflection technology.

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According to the report, Sony toyed with the idea of dropping the optical drive in favor or making games for the machine download-only over the internet.

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Nano bar codes are the molecular versions of traditional bar codes--metal nano-particles that have specific, recognizable chemical fingerprints that can be read by a machine, perhaps a UV lamp or optical microscope.

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Several of the individual components needed to build an optical computer have been demonstrated and even put together into a working machine.

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It can be awkward to drop in on a client and then ask if you can use the machine's Remote Disc feature to wirelessly borrow the optical drive on one of the client's computers if he hands you material on a CD-ROM.

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