New York, July 9:

Scientists are trying to make electronic gadgets, like MP3 players and mobile phones, which won’t get charged unless they are owned by the person charging them.

Every portable gadget has a charging circuit that recognises when the charger jack has been plugged in.

It then begins trickling a current to the battery. Now, US-based electronic product manufacturer Apple has claimed that the Digital Charge Management (DCM) technology that it has developed can stop a person from using gadgets if he or she does not own it.

In a patent application filed recently, the company said DCM technology uses a ‘guardian’ circuit to spot when someone is trying to use a cell phone with an unauthorised synching

system, reported the online edition of the New Scientist.

If codes buried in the synching or download software do not match those assigned to a particular gadget, its battery charging circuit is disabled and the gadget becomes unusable. Some people may object to such a restriction and there is a risk that the ID codes may be misread and an expensive and legitimately owned gadget might end up becoming an expensive paperweight.