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" I sometimes suspect that we're seeing something in the Internet as significant as the birth of cities. It's really something new, it's a new kind of civilization."
- William Gibson
 |
| Bee Cam | ||
| Small, airborne, self-guided personal camcorder. |
The device is described in the text as pocket-sized (one of the characters stores it in his pocket).
| Eddie realized just how close the wess'har camp must have been to the colony when he saw the first of the fighters...
...He made a mental note to have the bee cam permanently active in the future, just in case he missed another chance of good footage... He set the bee cam to focus on any movement and enjoyed the day around him. Who would have thought he would end up doing wildlife documentaries? |
| Technovelgy from City of Pearl,
by Karen Traviss. Published by HarperCollins in 2004 Additional resources -
|
Here is another short excerpt showing that Traviss imagined the bee cam as a kind of "selfie cam":
"Tight mid-shot and pull out on but behind me," he told it. He checked the shot on his handheld screen and moved a few meters to the right. That was better.
It is also implied that the bee cam is able to find its way back to a specified location, in the event that its owner is unable to do so.
Compare to the raytron apparatus from Beyond the Stars (1928) by Ray Cummings, the scarab robot flying insect from The Scarab (1936) by Raymond Z. Gallun, the artificial eye drone from Glimpse (1938) by Manly Wade Wellman, eyes from This Moment of the Storm (1966) by Roger Zelazny, the Ultraminiature Spy-Circuit from The Unknown (1972) by Christopher Anvil, copseyes from Cloak of Anarchy (1972) by Larry Niven, the sky ball from A Day For Damnation (1985) by David Gerrold, the drone floater camera from Runaway (1985) by Michael Crichton, the aerostat monitor from The Diamond Age (1995) by Neal Stephenson and the loiter drone from The Algebraist (2004) by Iain Banks.
He set his camera to follow him, and it hovered behind him like a large tame bee.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from City of Pearl
More Ideas
and Technology by Karen Traviss
Tech news articles related to City of Pearl
Tech news articles related to works by Karen Traviss
Bee Cam-related
news articles:
- iBubble Scuba Drone Follower
- Hover Camera - Unfold Drone, Shoot Selfie
- Filmmaking Robot Has Roving Artistic Vision
- Smart Video Cams - DARPA's Mind's Eye
- MeCam Selfie Nano Drone Like Karen Traviss' Bee Cam
- AirDog Auto-Follow Drone Captures Your Awesomeness
- Nixie Wrist-Ready Flying Selfie-Cam Drone
- Lily Camera Video Sport Selfie Drone
- Cool Foldable Mini-Quadcopter
- Centriphone Whirling Selfie Camera
- Roam-e Flying Selfie Drone Cam
- How Can Amazon Patent A Voice-Controlled Drone?
- Pixy Flying Selfie Drone From Snap
| Flock Stymied By 'Adversarial Fashion' |
| China's 'Magpie Drone' Ornithopter |
| FTC: Says Ring Employees Illegally Surveilled Customers |
| Perching Ambush Drones |
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'Space-sickness is one of the most unpleasant sensations that a human being can experience. Not all are subject to it...'
'...I saw a nice black heavy-looking cloud sailing by just now, and I can get the electrical machine out in five minutes to draw it down.'
'From a distance it could resolve the cosmic rays reflected from various substances.'
'The answer to the dumb student's prayer.'
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'The dinner was excellent. It was completely vegetarian — grown in specially prepared gardens in this Moon base...'
'Telepaths had their sensitiveness enlarged to an immense range by the pin-sets, which were telepathic amplifiers adapted to the mammal mind.'
'It was a relief to enter one of the comfortable autos, whisper a direction down the tube, and just know that you would be taken to your destination in the quickest, safest, and cheapest manner.'
'But he didn't get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts. George winced...'
