This could be a particularly gadget if you like me, you have absolutely no eye for colour and need to match a paint colour in the home.

The Pocket Palette® Device can “read” and capture a colour on a painted wall, so that you can find a matching colour should you need to touch it up again later. The device can store and recall up to 20 different colours at one time, which should be enough for most home users.

I’m not at all sure how it works, and would appreciate any suggestions, but it uses a white plaque to calibrate itself, so I’m guessing that it makes the colour determination from a reflectivity measurement, analysing the absorbed light from the reflected beam. Unfortunately, the colour sampler is set up to measure colours in the range produced by the manufacturer, Benjamin Moore, but there are over 34,000 of those, you should find a match for most paints.

This gadget isn’t cheap though and will set you back a whopping $300, so is likely only to be practical for professional interior designers, unless you can hire one. We’ve just had an air-conditioning unit installed at home and the paintwork’s damaged, but I think I’m going to save myself the money and repaint the entire wall – unless someone can lend me one!

The Pocket Palette® Device is available from Benjamin Moore.