Video – MicroDrone Spy in the Sky Surveillance Platform

We’re a little late in posting about this particular gadget but, whereas ordinarily we’d simply not post about something already so widely covered, the MicroDrone remote surveillance drone from German company MicroDrones GmbH genuinely gets our pulses racing – besides that, it’s guaranteed to feature in TFTS on the premise that ‘if it flies it’s in’.

The MicroDrone is by no means alone when it comes to remotely piloted surveillance craft – after all, UAVs have seen action the world over for many years – but what serves to distinguish this particular drone from the others is its ease of use and its relatively diminutive cost (though, at $60,000 a shot its certainly out of the reach of your average RC jock).

Measuring in at a mere 2ft in diameter, the MicroDrone can fly for up to 20 minutes on a single charge of its on-board battery pack and its already been trailed by Staffordshire Police in the UK during the V Festival. It’s also rumoured that none other than MI5 are showing an interest in the device.

Operated by a Wii style remote GSM modem based controller, the MicroDrone is has the ability to fly unnoticed above ‘hot-spots’ whilst offering a birds eye view of events thanks to its on-board high-resolution, infrared zoom camera that beams its imagery back down to earth in real-time. Alternatively, the drone can work in semi-autonomous mode using GPS navigation.

You can view the MicroDrone in action in the video below which, apart from including the obligatory shot of an unsuspecting woman sunbathing in a bikini, was assembled from numerous videos made available via the official MicroDrones GmbH website by BotJunkie (who we will subsequently duly credit).

Very Cool – though, admittedly, it’s not quite as cool as the previously featured RoboSwift Morphing Surveillance Bird concept (but at least it’s made it off the drawing board).

[Source | BotJunkie]