Hardware clone stamp

Photoshop has a "clone" tool. With the appropriate combination of clicks, you have a paintbrush which copies stuff from an adjacent area. If you haven't used it, it's hard to explain. But if you use it to "paint" a vertical swathe on the image, it will "paint" a copy of the corresponding vertical swathe, but offset by a specific amount. It's very useful for some effects, and especially for retouching a textured surface: you can brush out an unwanted item on a photograph of a lawn, for example, by "cloning" a patch of grass from nearby.

Buchanan Graphics Inc (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Buchanan Holdings, PLC) introduces the Clonester, bringing the power of the clone tool into the real world.

The Clonester consists of two heads, each about the size of half a gerbil or three large wasps. The heads are linked by an adjustable arm, the length of which can be adjusted (hence the term). One head is an optical scanner, consisting essentially of a line of light sensors. The other head contains a small ink-jet head and a replaceable ink cartridge.

To use, simply adjust the adjustable arm to the appropriate length, and place the Clonester on the surface in question. Press and hold the Triggermatic Trigger Button, and slide the Clonester back and forth over the surface. As the scanning head reads the colour of the surface beneath it, the same pattern is printed by the print head.

The uses are almost unlimitless. You have a scuff on your now-out-of-production intricately patterned wallpaper? No problem! Scuffs-on-now-out-of- production -intricately-patterned-wallpaper begone!! Simply set the adjustable arm to the distance between pattern repeats and - hey Preston! - clone an undamaged part of the pattern onto the scuffed area.

You want to copy part of an image from a magazine into a printout of your document, but have no scanner? Problems-with-copying-part-of-an- image-from-a-magazine-into-a- printout-of-your-document-whilst- having-no-scanner begone!! Simply adjust the adjustable arm so that the scanner head lies on the image and the print head lies in your document and - Ipso Facto! - a few swipes and the image is copied.

Can also be used to conceal embarrassing deformities in ocelots' fur patterns.