Eye Ball™ R1 Remote Surveillance Camera
technovelgy
Wedensday 29rd April, 2005 (UPI)

Remington’s Eye Ball™ R1 is a compact wireless 360° mobile display system. It can be used in tactical operations where law enforcement personnel need to see the situation before entering a building, floor or room. The Eye Ball™ R1 is tough enough to allow officers to roll, toss, lower or throw it as needed. It transmits streaming video and audio to a Personal Display Unit (PDU) up to two hundred yards away.

The Eye Ball™ R1 has these great features:

• Omni-directional camera
• Near infrared illumination up to 9 yards
• Captures video up to 25 yards and audio to 5 yards
• Transmits streaming video up to 200 yeards away
• rotates 4 RPM & can be directed toward a specific target, capturing a 55° horizontal & 41° vertical field of view
• Two hour battery life.

The Eye Ball™ R1 is controlled remotely by the Personal Display Unit with a 6.4 inch color screen (one PDU can controll up to two Eye Ball™ R1s. Interested in accessories? You can get a lowering wire pouch and a ground spike along with all the regular stuff.

It is useful in a variety of situations:

• Ceiling or attic investigation:
  The Eye Ball™ R1 can quickly be attached to a pole providing visibility into ceilings and attics. It’s near-infrared capability is essential for night or dark operations.
• Clearing corners and hallways
  The Eye Ball™ R1 is the perfect tool for looking around corners, down hallways, or into rooms keeping your team out of harm's way.
• Clearing stairwells:
  The Eye Ball™ R1 can be attached to a lowering wire, allowing you to clear stairwells as your team pursues suspects.

I've chosen copseyes, from Larry Niven's 1972 story Cloak of Anarchy to compare with this device. It's purpose was quite similar; to provide a remote way to "eyeball" a situation.

I'm also wondering if the folks at Remington might want to team up with the makers of the Rotundus robot , a self-powered spherical bot perfect for remote surveillance work.