Now soaring at 500 feet, the rocket cam

(Credit: Hammacher Schlemmer)

The remote-controlled rocket phone may yet to become a reality, but in the meantime we can all amuse ourselves with another airborne gadget: a flying video camera. And it's just in time for football season--we can just see these projectiles knocking out those wimpy floating field cameras in midflight.

It may look like an ordinary toy rocket, but the remote-controlled mini-craft houses a digital camera in its nose cone that's "impact-resistant" (good thinking) and can capture images from an altitude of 500 feet. Once it lands, the video can be downloaded onto a computer through its USB connection.

Don't expect to do any serious surveillance--GeekAlerts says the 16-inch rocket cam can record only 12 seconds of video at a time at 640x480 resolution. But depending on how well you can keep it airborne, that may be plenty.