Wed, 28 Feb 2007

Sneaky spy camera pen snaps shots

A couple of weeks ago I discovered one of these spy camera pens at the local Jaycar Electronics store (image courtesy of this pen camera product listing):

The device was in the clearance bin and a purchase was pretty tempting—it was discounted from $NZ144 to just $NZ20! (I did actually manage to hold off buying it until the next day when I returned to the store for another purchase—such restraint!)

I'd be interested to know when someone last paid anything close to $NZ150 for the device as the specs aren't anything flash by today's standards (Engadget has a review from early 2005 and links to more product details):

Further product details can be seen at the product listings linked above. In terms of practical use I can't imagine it being much help to the average spy as its user interface consists of pushing a single button in response to audible voice prompts! ("*Click*, I am now photographing your soopa-secret documents." Okay, so it's not quite as bad as that: listen to the spy pen voice prompts [~1.2MB WAV].)

An unique feature of the RS232 serial connection is the cable (see left side of photo above) with a female DB9 connector to a 2.5mm stereo audio jack that fits into a socket at the top of the pen.

Here is an initial and—coincidentally—suitably spy-related snapshot taken under poor incandescent lighting conditions (converted from BMP):

There was actually another of the devices in the clearance bin but by the time I got back there today it had been sold—I'll just have to make sure my explorations are non-destructive then...

The more observant of you may have noticed the Windows-only compatibility "feature"—my main laptop is non-Windows but I thought "Hey, it's a serial device, how difficult can it be to get the data?".

And that, dear reader, was the beginning...

Posted at: 03:45 | category: / | Tags: , | Comments ()