Gadgets 007 Had First

In honor of James Bond creator Ian Fleming's 100th birthday, New Scientist has put together a rather awesome list: 007 gadgets that were "way ahead of their time – and only now are we beginning to catch up." Here's a sample:

Fake fingerprints (Diamonds Are Forever)

*In what has become known as the "Gummi Bear Attack",
Japanese cryptographer Tsutomu Matsumoto showed in 2002 that a person's fingerprints could indeed be copied and used to create fake ones with relative ease, as suggested in *Diamonds Are Forever.

Using gelatine as found in chewy sweets like gummi bears, he showed that a latent print could be lifted from a glass and used to fool 80 per cent of fingerprint scanners tested.

Phone-controlled car (Tomorrow Never Dies)

*In 1997's *Tomorrow Never Dies,
Bond becomes his own backseat driver, steering his car using a touchpad on a phone showing the view out of the front window on its display.

Mobile phones with accelerometers can be used to control toy cars using free software dubbed ShakerRacer. The user holds the phone like a steering wheel and tilts it in the direction they want the car to drive (see video).
It's an approach that looks easier to use than that of Bond's gadget-master, Q, who had 007 sliding his finger over a touch pad.