Build Your Own Camera, Launch It Like a Grenade 117
angry tapir writes "Meet the Firefly. Israeli defense contractor Rafael Armament Development Authority calls it a 'revolutionary concept in tactical intelligence,' but really it's a wireless camera that's shot 500 feet in the air by a grenade launcher. And if a couple of hackers at the Defcon hacking convention get their way, soon anyone will be able to buy this type of military grade technology for only US$500."
You should just buy one of these (Score:3, Interesting)
You should just buy one of these bad boys.
http://www.draganfly.com/uav-helicopter/draganflyer-x6/ [draganfly.com]
Military grade and can stay aloft more than 7.2 seconds, while capturing realtime HD video that can be transmitted to a cool pair of goggles on the ground.
Plus, you can whip it out of a backpack in 10 seconds. :-D Cool!
http://www.draganfly.com/video/gallery/show-single-video.php?video_number=2&product_id=DF-X6&r=837 [draganfly.com]
everything for war (Score:3, Interesting)
more stuff created for war. These cameras instruments are not going to be sold to civilians, here is the purpose:
Soldiers shoot it off and for eight glorious seconds it gives them a bird's eye view of the terrain around them, tipping them off to enemy positions. Then it crashes back to earth.
Private citizens can't buy these flying cameras, much less the 40mm grenade launchers used to shoot them. But Vlad Gostom and Joshua Marpet think they'd be great tools for a search and rescue operation, or maybe a boon to some local police force's SWAT (special weapons and tactics) team. So they're building their own version and showing off what they've learned at Defcon this week.
of-course outside of a war or a 'rescue operation' there may be not much use for these things, but it just adds to resources that are mis-allocated for wars instead of going towards normal consumer market. The only use for consumer market I can think of is war games unfortunately, like paintball.
Re:You should just buy one of these (Score:4, Interesting)
I have a few of those 808 keychain cameras and they shoot remarkably good video considering their size and disposable price.