Photography

Neighborhood watching with the Swinglet CAM high resolution flying camera

Neighborhood watching with the Swinglet CAM high resolution flying camera
The Swinglet CAM can take off, snap aerial photos along a chosen route and then land, where the operator can upload the images to a waiting notebook
The Swinglet CAM can take off, snap aerial photos along a chosen route and then land, where the operator can upload the images to a waiting notebook
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The Swinglet CAM with case, remote control, radio modem and optional semi-rugged notebook
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The Swinglet CAM with case, remote control, radio modem and optional semi-rugged notebook
The Swinglet CAM can take off, snap aerial photos along a chosen route and then land, where the operator can upload the images to a waiting notebook
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The Swinglet CAM can take off, snap aerial photos along a chosen route and then land, where the operator can upload the images to a waiting notebook
A few shakes of the craft and it's up into the air for up to 30 minutes of aerial photography
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A few shakes of the craft and it's up into the air for up to 30 minutes of aerial photography
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With the help of the Swinglet CAM you can create your very own local aerial map a la Google Maps, or monitor wildlife distribution in a given area, or maybe just get a feel for what's going on in the neighborhood. The small, unmanned aerial vehicle can take off and land on its own and its integrated camera will snap high resolution images along a predetermined flightpath or as directed by remote control.

Swiss sensor manufacturer senseFly sees the Swinglet CAM high resolution aerial photography drone being useful for such things as traffic monitoring, security applications, mapping, crop monitoring and wildlife watching. It comes packed in a suitably-sized case, has a wingspan of 80cm (31.4 inches) and weighs 500g (17.6 ounces). Its Li-polymer battery will power the UAV for 30 minutes which is said to give it an operational range of up to 20km (12.4 miles) and a top speed of 30-50kph (up to 30mph).

Once unpacked from the case, the onboard brushless electric motor is activated with a few shakes of the device. The drone can be programmed to follow a pre-determined flight path based on up to 20 GPS coordinates, but also comes with a remote control. So long as the device stays within range (up to 2km/1.2 miles), it is also possible to alter a pre-programmed flight plan while it's in the air, but there's no live photo feed so operators will have to wait for it to land before being able to get at the images.

The Swinglet CAM with case, remote control, radio modem and optional semi-rugged notebook
The Swinglet CAM with case, remote control, radio modem and optional semi-rugged notebook

As for the images, they're automatically snapped with an integrated 12 megapixel camera. The Swinglet CAM package also contains a radio modem, battery and charger. Operators will need to load the included "e-mo-tion" software onto a suitable notebook, but there's also a version which includes a semi-rugged notebook ground station.

Pricing information is available on request from senseFly but we wouldn't expect the Swinglet CAM UAV to be available at the cheaper end of the scale.

The company has produced a video to show what its product is capable of:

swinglet CAM by senseFly

View gallery - 3 images
8 comments
8 comments
ragtopman
BORDER PATROL DEVICE !!!
Caimbeul
Stalking.
David Tobin
Ideal for keeping an eye on the police, council enforcement officers, politicians or the wife. Make sure they are working hard and not, for example, mindlessly cruising news on the web.
Facebook User
Nice video!
Great product!
Everyone now can be like agent 007 :)
Ed
screw that! get something affordable and readily available! http://ardrone.parrot.com/parrot-ar-drone/usa/
Makes all other choices moot!
windykites
That\'s a very impressive video. The plane did seem to be wobbling a bit in flight, and the photographs and have a large amount of overlap. It looks like the plane is made from expanded polystyrene and you have to be very careful when closing the lid that you don\'t snap off the fins at the end. The photos at the end seemed to be taken from a height of about 700 feet? Is it still within transmitter range at this height?
The next step obviously is a live camera feed, then this would be very useful for police surveillance, instead of using the very expensive helicopter option. the frame rate could be fairly slow.The wing design is very neat with no fuselage.
I have a MUVI miniature video camera, which can record for up to an hour. This would provide a lot more information, and probably doesn\'t weigh any more than the installed still camera. Way to go!
Shahin Mokhtar
Well.. @windykites1
Technical specs
Camera: 12MP Wingspan: 80cm Weight: 500g Speed: 30-50km/h Endurance: 30min Operational range: up to 20km Data link: up to 2km Can operate in winds up to 25km/h
But i mailed them for the price, i think it\'s something above 2000$
It would be very cool to have one !
Michael Crumpton
If they could make it out of some kind of transparent or translucent plastic it would be a great stealth espionage device.