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'

In another demonstration, a printer that was printing a tax document with social security numbers scanned the document and sent it to another system.

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The scanner does not require any expensive or confusing software and employs a new twin-roller feeding system to ensure that the photos are scanned evenly each time.

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The solution: Smith advocates an optical scan system where voters fill out a paper ballot that's subsequently scanned to create a digital vote.

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In December, the county was directed by Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to scrap its touch-screen voting system, which had been plagued with problems, and to replace it with optically scanned paper ballots.

NPR: Ohio's New Voting System Revs Up for Primary

The regulators noted that only iPhone users running the latest version of Apple's iOS operating system were given the option of manually adding contacts rather than allowing their address book to be scanned.

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