Connery, Sean Connery is Bond, James Bond

HATSFIELD, England, March 6 (UPI) -- What -- or who -- was British author Ian Fleming thinking of when he created James Bond may now be known thanks to high-tech gadgetry worthy of Q.

The likeness is more Sean Connery, the original suave spy, a study concluded.

To discover how author Ian Fleming viewed 007, Professors Richard Wiseman, University of Hertfordshire in Hatsfield. England, and Rob Jenkins, University of Glasgow, used prototyping, which blends several pictures of a face to create an accurate image of a person, the Telegraph said Tuesday.

In 1961, Fleming named several actors that he thought had the right facial characteristics to play Bond, including Cary Grant, David Niven, James Mason, Rex Harrison, Patrick McGoohan, Richard Burton and Stewart Granger. Jenkins tracked down images of the matinee idols then used sophisticated software to blend them into a single composite.

"We have used face merging technology to create the image of Bond that Ian Fleming had in mind when he wrote his books," Wiseman said.

"The image shows a clean-cut, classic looking face which is far more Connery," he said, than Daniel Craig, the latest Bond in "Casino Royale."