DARPA, that US Military wing responsible for bringing the world one step closer to Skynet and a war against the machines (and perhaps arguably the real-life version of Q’s department from the James Bond series) are at it again – only this time they’ve swapped robotic canines and unmanned aircraft for Nano spy technologies. And the results do indeed look a little scary, if not a little sci-fi sounding.
Gracefully dubbed the ‘Nano Hummingbird’, the miniature spy plane mimics the natural movements of a fluttering, whizzing Hummingbird; weighs just 19 grams and has a total wingspan of 6.5 inches.
With a top speed of 12mph and the ability to maintain stability in up to 5mph wind gusts, the spy bird has an operating time of only 8 minutes – but that’s quite the improvement from two years ago, when this whirling bird droid could only imagine 20 seconds.
With all kinds of battlefield applications imaginable, including the potential to move into dangerous spaces and busy urban areas unannounced, the video capture provided by the bird’s camera system is still a little underwhelming for now (check out the video below). However, given the large amount of funding provided by the US government into wartime robotics, it’s only a matter of time before the optics significantly improve with the future potential for an onboard weapons system. Your move Mr Bond…
Be afraid, be very afraid.
[Via LA Times]
Tom
Monday, February 21, 2011 at 12:36 PMThat would be awesome to terrorise the cat with..
Nodeity
Monday, February 21, 2011 at 2:38 PMActually I can see the cat walking off with a shit eating smile and a wing hanging out of its mouth..:)
djef
Monday, February 21, 2011 at 12:56 PMunmannered aircraft? are they burping and farting in public? or just using a salad fork to eat fish?
Daniel Long
Monday, February 21, 2011 at 3:17 PMWell played, Good sir – well played. (And fixed) Curse ye modern spell checking software!
ozoneocean
Monday, February 21, 2011 at 1:06 PMYou have to wonder why they’re releasing to footage. In the past when US government departments have released footage or specs of “new” systems it generally means they’ve already been superseded so it’s safe to show this (older) stuff. It’s just silly speculation, but I’m guessing they’ve already got something smaller, less obvious and less detectable out than a hummingbird. -surely outside of an Amazon rainforest such things are rather uncommon?
Jon
Monday, February 21, 2011 at 2:05 PMmy little brother flies RC helicopters made in china and bought off eBay for $10 that are smaller and quieter then this humming bird!
Mark R
Monday, February 21, 2011 at 9:19 PMOur paranoid delusional Governments who mass murder innocents and seek control over other countries for greed, power and wealth, could have homed and fed their own homeless Americans, who were victims to mortgage fraud and lost the lot through corporate white collar crime. This bird is for surveillance of YOU you poor fools, at YOUR expense!
grudge
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 12:26 AMNice, but this would have been big news 10 years ago or more. Technologically, not breaking ground here.
Arjun
Sunday, March 27, 2011 at 1:38 PMThis device shows that the art of camouflage that is so well demonstrated by the animal kingdom (chameleons) is being adapted by humans too. At this rate, spy gadgets or spy planes will be reduced to the size of a dust particle. For example, I recently read about a spy plane that is just 3 gram in weight (http://spygadgets.blogspot.com/2009/11/three-gram-spy-plane.html)
What is next?