The trees have eyes
(Credit:
Gizmodo)
Military and spy tech just keeps getting weirder and weirder. According to Scientific American, Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon's top defense contractor, is designing a microcamera based on the maple seed.
Instead of floating and fluttering on the air, this tiny camera will have two tinier jet boosters to help steer it, or at least keep it aloft. Each device will have its own camera and wireless communications for sending telemetry back to its source. Lockheed's plan is to produce many of these little seed-cameras for dispersal over war zones to monitor conditions and, with the help of different tiny modules, to detect chemical or biological weapons or enemy troops. The little gizmos could even be used for finding survivors in disaster areas.
Like most military tech, don't expect to see tiny, fluttering cameras hit stores any time soon. The maple seed cameras are still under development, and Uncle Sam gets dibs.
