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The company joins several other Japanese companies including Hitachi and NEC that are racing to get the new technology on the shelves. Until now, the leader of the pack was considered to be Toshiba, which earlier this year said it was developing an MP3 player powered by fuel cell. However, that device is not expected until 2007.

According

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to Reuters, Canon has three fuel cell units under development. The largest unit is said to be designed for a compact printer, the second is targeted at the digital camera market while the third, said to measure 3 cm by 4 cm (1.2 by 1.6 inches) for smaller mobile devices like flash memory equipped MP3 players such as the iPod shuffle.

Fuel cell technology is not only considered to be cheap - it runs on reusable methanol tanks, but is also considered to be 'green' as the only waste product is a little carbon dioxide. However, Canon has taken a different approach and powers the fuel cell with hydrogen from a refillable cartridge. The company has not yet decided whether to sell hydrogen filled cartridges or have refill stations at its stores.