Robotic Bluetooth camera noses around

Called the Rob-1, this freewheeling camera can be controlled via a Bluetooth connexion up to a range of 50 metres. It gives a new lift to voyeurism given the wide range of options it can provide.

How about streamed video, for example? Or just let the Rob-1 snap away happily and store the pictures to its own memory. Can't see your way across the lawn? Well, the Rob-1 has a front mounted 'bright light'.

Controlling the robo-snap is just a question of using the handset's keys, joystick (or in the case of a Sony Ericsson P900/910) you can use the touchscreen. And you see on your mobile phone exactly what the Rob-1 sees.

Even better the camera can be tilted. Either downwards by 20 degrees or upwards by 70 degrees - especially handy for those up-the-skirt shots.

It's also tiny - about eleven centimetres across (six inches?). So with any luck you might not even be spotted.

Sony Ericsson themselves regard the Rob-1 as something of a fun toy. It's a follow-up to the Bluetooth controlled Car-100 toy car which was a surprise good seller for Sony Ericsson last Xmas 2004.

Will we see the Rob-1 in a James Bond movie, one wonders? It ships Q3 2005.