EyeBall cameras can be chucked in for remote surveillance

Sometimes the posh life at the Engadget southern winter estate bores us and we look for excitement by spying on our ritzy Floridian neighbors. Up till now, that has required tossing interns over the electric fence and assessing their screams for any info, but now it seems ODF has a solution in their EyeBall wireless cameras that should save us a bundle on HR and lawsuits. The rotating spheroid camera weighs less than a pound and is protected by rubber and polyurethane, which means we can chuck it through a window or bounce it off a garden statue to get the device properly situated to transmit the dirt. The battery lasts for two hours, and is rechargeable if we ever retrieve the device, which we hope to, since it's $4,800 for a pair of EyeBalls and the receiving equipment. The kit is actually targeted for use by the Police and other such "betterment of humanity" type endeavors, but that doesn't mean we can't have our little fun.

[Elias @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Is it motorized somehow so that it can roll? Or at least have some sort of ballast?

What if you throw it and it lands camera-down?

Pretty neat idea, reminds me of the little floating bot that trains Luke Skywalker in Star Wars.

-- Elias

[Shin @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

It's baseball-sized... I'm not impressed.

[spencer hudson @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

The future is getting closer - now if you could add remote power - as in rfid imagine what a gadget you would have then

[iBill @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Baseball sized? Thats not the freaking future... god thats just stupud. The criminal will just shoot the lense out, or turn it towards a wall, lol.
God, what the hell happened to Helicopters?

[Michael Shada @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

I agree with 1,2,3,and 4 above, Baseball size! THATS HUGE!!!
With state of the art miniaturization it should be actual eyeball size (1-inch diameter), including the motors and batteries.

Only then could they even BEGIN to justify the $4,800.00 price tag. $300.00 is all its worth, any good ham radio operator could throw together a device like this for about $300 to $600 using all new parts.

Right now the way it is, the police should arrest the people selling them this device because they�re crooks. They should also arrest themselves for ripping off the taxpayer who foots the bill for OVERPRICED toys.
This size it�s a toy, if it was 1-inch or less, or disguised as something it might slip by unnoticed and be a useful device for surveillance.
I want the Police to have the best and most useful equiptment avilable, but this is a piece of junk / OVERPRICED TOY!

[lupinstel @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

It doesn't even shoot laser beams.

[Malatesta @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

is that Leia's thermal detonator?

[DM @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

#7, Nah, maybe those two are Leia's other ...um... assets...

[AZ @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Please include this in Team Fortress 2.

[Mojo @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

I think you buy these at the same place you get fire and moss arrows.

[DM @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

#10 hehe.... I thought I was the last Thief fan in this world!

[nein @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

I'm very disappointed there is no pink Hello Kitty decal included. If it could levitate at least 5' off the ground I think it'd be worth that price.

[TIMMAH!! @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Now they just gotta get it to fly and add a corkscrew and we can have real-life Phantasm!

[Putztopia @ Jan 4th 2006 12:35PM]

Gay ... totally gay and useless. They will be out of business soon.