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I-Ball Grenade Cam Just Lob And View
The I-Ball grenade camera from Dreampact is a wireless device that can be lobbed into a room or fired from a grenade launcher to get a better view of the enemy.
(I-Ball grenade cam)
The I-Ball has internal image sensors and fish-eye lenses. The data from the I-Ball is sent back wirelessly and then processed by a Field Programmable Gate Array, which automagically compensates for the movement of the camera. It outputs a 360 degree image in real time.
This device should be especially useful in urban conflict situations when troops might like to see what is going on around the corner, or over a wall, or inside a room - without having to go there.
This device reminds me of the recording eyes used artfully by Robert Silverberg in his excellent 1969 novel The Man in the Maze. Recording eyes were a bit tougher than I-Balls - you could drop them from space.
Muller saw a cloud-wrapped planet... it could have been Venus... The recording eye pierced the cloud layer and revealed an unfamiliar, not very Earthlike planet. The soil looked moist and spongy, and rubbery trees that looked like giant toadstools thrust upward from it......three alien figures came strolling through the somber grove. They were elongated, almost spidery, with clusters of eight or ten jointed limbs depending from their narrow shoulders...
One of them paused, bent peered closely at the ground. It scooped up the eye that had been witnessing its activities.
(Read more about Silverberg's recording eyes)
Take a look at some similar developments, like the EyeBall Omni-Directional Smart Eye Sensor and the Throwbot Pocket-Sized Recon Robot.
From BBC.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 11/19/2008)
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