Throwable WiFi Camera

Dotnaught writes "The Eye Ball is a spherical, throwable WiFi camera designed to precede police into areas where there's no direct line of sight. It's manufactured by O.D.F. Optronics, Ltd, an Israeli maker of vision-based systems for the defense, security and consumer electronics markets. Remington Arms Co. has won approval from the Federal Communications Commission to sell the Eye Ball domestically, with law enforcement being likely buyers. The cost is about $4,800 for two EyeBalls (who would want just one?), which apparently also includes video monitoring gear."

Re:not like back in the day

[sterno]

Camera with thermal imaging in the eye ball and then smoke grenaes. done deal.

Re:more great editing

[Anonymous Coward]

> I think that's "...precede police into areas..."

English as we learned it is dead, and a new one has arisen. Six months ago my nephew showed me an english assignment he was quite proud of (92%, third highest mark in the class), with only a couple of spelling mistakes picked out. His teacher had missed marking him down for "asaposed", "loose", "alot", "u" and "ur". It was hard to share in his joy when you know the teacher's english literacy levels don't stretch any further than SMS-speak.

Strong Encryption

[Anonymous Coward]

The article makes no mention of any encryption used. I suppose that you wouldn't want to use these for surveillance purposes, as they could potentially be located simply by intercepting and reviewing the perspective of the wireless signal.

Want to locate the police? See things from their perspective and know where they're coming in. Yes, this technology sounds like a brilliant idea!

Moving cameras

[lastberserker]

That's why you use cameras on wheels [umn.edu]. They can move, they can jump the stairs, they can be thrown, and better yet, they can be fired from a special cannon. Totally sweet :-)

Re:not like back in the day

[Brain_Recall]

A mirror is of course a simple practical solution to the problem. But there are caveats. A mirror allows you to see around a corner, but it could also just as easily let the enemy know where you are (tilt it just wrong and it will be like a beacon). Not to mention a mirror is a tad bit fragile in a combat situation.

The military has used other solutions over the years. The use of a spit-shined combat knife worked extremely well for this (as it was standard issue to all soldiers). Newer technology has allowed the military to mount cameras onto the barrel of their M-16 and a small heads-up display (much like some helicopter head-up gear) is used to view. It allows them to reach the gun around a corner and view the area and even aim and return fire if needed. The camera is multi-purpose since it also could switch to night-vision.

The SWAT would probably like this more, as close combat allows them to bounce the ball around a corner and down a hall a little nicer. The ball itself is probably heavily weighted in one side (probably with the batteries) so that it would right-side-up.

This is right out of Stargate SG1

[TheRealDamion]

These look and act exactly like the G'oauld devices used in many episodes of Stargate SG1. I can't believe I'm the first to mention this, maybe it's my threshold setting? Theirs are silver with no obvious camera lens, but otherwise look and are used in the same way.

Re:Likely buyers

[HD Webdev]

Ya, 2000$ for an upskirt? What, you expect they'll give you the camera back after you toss it into the change room?

There are organizations that will pay much more than $2000 USD for a good nekkid picture of a celebrity.

Estes Oracle Digital Video Rocket

[FleaPlus]

This reminds me a bit of something I came across while online holiday-shopping the other day. Basically, it looks like Estes came out with a $80 rocket kit [amazon.com] which has a built-in digital video camera. The idea is that you launch it up into the air, recover the rocket, plug a USB cable into it to download the video, and then watch a rocket's-eye-view of the flight. The camera is in the rocket's nose, so you presumably only see the ground on descent. The camera is just 320x240 with 9fps, but it still seems pretty neat.

Re:not like back in the day

[ozmanjusri]

but then you could just use a mirror

I did most of my firefighting in underground mining and industrial teams. Mirrors are sometimes used, but then you need to be both close to the mirror and close to the line of sight. When you're wearing BA or BG equipment, or when the hazard is unpredictable (ie, rocks spalling because of the heat), something like this beats mirrors hands down.

Hello, Number 6....

[Grandma Death]

Add some offensive capability to this and you have a passable version 1.0 of "Rover" [bookmice.net].