Many technology buffs have probably wanted to have the latest gadgets of the kind we've seen so often in James Bond movies: exploding pens, remote-control cell phones, cameras the size of rings, remote-control cars and tape recorders that self-destruct.

Many are the stuff of science fiction but others are a reality that are very useful for journalists, investigators and police.

The most notable advance in amateur surveillance is that of photography, thanks to the growth of digital imaging. On the market these days there are many cell phones that feature digital cameras allowing people to take pictures whenever and wherever they want. They pose such a problem for the show biz industry that many concert and theater organizers take them away from people as they go into the show to keep them from taking pictures of debuts and selling them on the Internet.

A camera inside a lighter
But if you really want to take pictures and go unnoticed there are more ingenious solutions.

One of the best is the digital camera embedded in a lighter. Several manufacturers offer them. Thus, the James Bond 1 from Digital Dreams is identical to a silver-colored lighter when it is closed. But open up and it has a small lense offering 0.3 megapixels of image quality. And despite its tiny size it offers seven functions: a digital camera with room for
310 pictures, 30 seconds of video recording with sound, video surveillance at intervals for 19 days, portable memory for all kinds of documents and recording of 12 seconds of sound and web cam.

A similar model is the Spypen qx.o from Plawa&Suvil, which also has a wide variety of digital cameras in such forms as pens.

But the top of the line in this field is the iPen from Pretec: it is the first model that lets you actually write and also works as a digital camera and webcam. It has 8 Mb of memory.

The list goes on: Logitech has the Pocket Digital, a camera the size of a credit card that can be concealed in any purse.

 

Video cameras in your pocket
The creme de la creme for amateur spies are tiny video cameras that have become so popular through hidden-camera TV shows. There is one for just about every need.

Camtronics, for example, has models that can be hidden inside a pack of cigarettes (CS-10), on a shirt button (BU-10), in the shell of a cell phone (MS-10), in a purse (HB-10), in a book (BS-10) and even inside a calculator (CL-10). All use everyday objects that allow recording of images in the most discreet way. These small cameras offer about 60 minutes of recording and send the images to a receiver that can be set up at a distance of 100 meters and connected to a video recorder (VHS, DVS or hard drive) or a television.

Sound recording
Then there is sound recording, which also features interesting devices. Modern digital recorders that store sound in formats like MP3 have practically done away with classical models based on analogue tapes. This reduces the size of the tapes considerably, to the point where they can go unnoticed, as if they were pens. The Voice Yeep from Samsung
is a good example of this kind of recorder. It features an optional microphone for better recording. Another example is the VR 636 from Oregon Scientific. At 6 mm thick, it is the world's smallest.

Internet surveillance
Finally, a technology that is getting popular in recent times thanks broad band Internet access  (ADSL in particular) is video surveillance via the Internet.

An ADSL connection, a computer and an  IP (Internet Protocol) camera are all you need to see what is happening in the living room of your house, the back yard or the kids' room from any computer with Internet access, such as the PC in your office. All you need to do is plug the address of the IP camera into the Internet server and start watching in real time what is going on. Manufacturers such as Axis, Panasonic, Convision and Sony market cameras with these features.