Archive for the 'Spying' Category

The EyeDrive is a compact remote controlled surveillance robot that is lightweight, capable of all terrain and rugged. It provides real-time 360° audio and video surveillance. It sports cameras on all four sides and a fifth in front that will zoom vertically.

The EveDrive sends back streaming 360° audio and video scenes of what it sees. The EveDrive is splash proof, can drive upside down and features 360° illumination to carry out missions in the dark. It even comes with a vest, to carry the robot in back and the robot’s gear up front.

[Eyedrive]

DARPA has done it again. This time with a tiny 10-gram robot that flaps its wings like a bird. It’s the first wireless robot this tiny that can also carry its own power supply. Bad guys will be trying to swat this nano-bot like a mosquito one day soon.

They still have to work out some of the finer details of course. It’s better than a mosquito in wind, but still can only withstand breezes of around 5 mph. It also has some endurance limitations. It can only stay in the air for 20 seconds before the batteries have to be recharged.

Maybe next it can zap bad guys with an electric jolt and kill itself much like a bee.

[Dvice]

Very soon police may use flying surveillance bots to catch the bad guys. It’s closer than ever to becoming a reality. At the AlwaysOn Stanford Summit, Aeryon Labs President Dave Kroetsch gave a compelling pitch on his company. His company makes a two-pound robot helicopter with enough on-board intelligence and stability control to allow it to be flown by people who just point to locations on a Google Map-based interface.

The whole kit fits in a suitcase-sized crate and can be quickly assembled on the fly. After the user snaps the bot together, he or she just points to a spot on a map. The device has a motion-compensated camera that can take 5-megapixel stills and stream video back to the operator’s tablet.

The Aeryon Scout can fly in up to 30 mph winds for up to 20 minutes and is limited to 500 feet in altitude (FAA restrictions). One kit costs $50,000, but police could do wonders with just one of these.

[CNet]

Military researchers have built a tiny drone that looks and flies just like a hummingbird. Even your garden isn’t safe now. Next time you see that pretty hummingbird sucking nectar from your flowers, you may just think twice about how cute it is.

This thing flaps its robotic wings to stay in air like the real thing. So far, the bird has only stayed aloft for 20 seconds at a time, but it has shown its capability as a spy already. AeroVironment doesn’t just want the little drone to fly like a bird but also to look like one. So it has been given another $2.1 million(By DARPA) to build a humming bot version 2.0.

[New Launches]

This video will tell you all about the US Air Force Research Laboratory’s computer generated vision of bird and insect-like Micro Air Vehicles (MAV) of the future. It includes such gems as a suicide MAV insect that can say, land on your neck and explode.

Of course they can also operate in swarms to survey large areas and double their killing fun and even deliver chemicals. These are all conceptual right now, but the future looks downright nasty. Who knows what will be buzzing around in our skies.

[Flightglobal]

We’ve talked about the Blackfin before in passing, now here you can have a look at it. The SRV-1 Blackfin is a fully assembled surveillance bot that you can control via the web with a Java-based console. It’s fully customizable with open source code and schematics. It looks like a lot of fun, whether you want to explore the terrain in yoiur home or outside.

[Thinkgeek] VIA [Theawesomer]

ALSOK is a Japanese electronics/security company that recently released An-9RR, a robotic pair built for security and receptionist tasks.
“Equipped with a camera and several sensors, the main unit (weight: 35kg) is able to recognize a visitor’s face or voice, take reservations, greet people and say goodbye. It also keeps records of people coming into the buildings it guards.”
These seem rather advanced for how cute they look. Though not very intimidating as security robots. Visitors can use the “parent” robot’s touchscreen interface to contact people or learn information about the building in which it’s located. The “kid” robot is smaller and can only be used for security purposes. These things might be cool but they won’t be scaring away any would-be intruders. The folks at ALSOK should talk to Boston Dynamics to see if they can get these security bots mounted on a could BigDogs. Yes, then my army would be marvelou—I mean…
AW CUTE!

[CrunchGear]

Can you believe these little things can fly? They are the size of a quarter and are amazing. Ilan Kroo and his colleagues at Stanford hope to one day use them for Mars exploration or atmospheric research.

Stanford’s funding came from DARPA, but their goal for the Mesicopter leaned more toward environmental surveillance than tactical. Swarms of the cheap bots could be used for collecting atmospheric data, or exploring Mars as well as other uses. Pretty amazing stuff.

[Neatorama]

I really, really thought this was fake when I first saw it. It’s a robot that can launch a net to capture intruders. Double-yeu tee eff. What’s more impressive than the ability to shoot a net is the fact that some company actually made this travesty of a security bot. Created, for some reason, by robot developer Tmsuk Co. Ltd. and security company Alacom Co. LtdIt, it’s called the T-34 and it’s loaded with sensors to detect any nettable guests.
Aside from being the robot equivalent of Spiderman’s wrist, the robot can be controlled via cell phone, and real-time images are transferred to the remote operator. Perhaps this redeeming feature makes it a useful as a surveillance robot. Unless this net is made of polonium-plated Kevlar, I can’t imagine the T-34 being actually able to capture anything except a hearty “haha wut” from its prey.

[AFP]

Like the Rovio, the WowWee Spyball spy camera will let you live out some James Bond fantasies. Or at the very least snap some upskirt pics. The tiny remote controlled robotic ball features built-in Wi-Fi connectivity and gets around on sleek wheels, capable of smooth mobility and quick 360-degree turns.

It can also transform from a ball to a camera and back within seconds, and it does it’s job quietly, so you can sneak around and get some dirt on people. The blackmail will follow. Another cool feature is that when it’s connected to a home network, the Spyball can be controlled remotely via the Internet.

I love it’s menacing death star type look. It looks like it has just spotted you and is about to take you out with a laser.

[Slipperybrick]