Camera can fly and hide

It is small enough to fit into a soldier's backpack and can fly at a speed of 48 km / h. He could not only fly, he could also tumble, land on the ground and hide in the windows to record.

This device is a camera called Tumbleweed - an invention of the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Manchester (UK). Different from unmanned drones, Tumbleweed is equipped with six pushers arranged diagonally to the ground - allowing it to not only fly, tumble, land, but also hide on doorways. , walls and roofs.

Tumbleweed is small enough to fit in a backpack and only takes a few seconds to boot. It is capable of transmitting video images in real time to a commanding officer so that he can detect the potential dangers for soldiers under his control, before enemy gunmen or real bombers does an attack. Commanding officers do this with a face recognition software.

Model of a spy camera named Tumbleweed.Photo: dailymail.co.uk.

British soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan often have to patrol on narrow streets or multi-walled residential areas - ideal for opponents in organizing ambushes or bombs. The British military is using many unmanned aerial reconnaissance devices. One of the most prominent devices is the Desert Hawk, a super small aircraft that can take off in minutes and reach a maximum height of about 150 m. It is equipped with a camera to transmit field images to the command center.

"Controlling unmanned aerial reconnaissance is not easy because they often have to fly close to the ground, crept through buildings and be hindered by winds. Instead of using propellers, Tumbleweed Equipped with six thrusters to move, the shift lever allows the operator to change the thrust for a few seconds, so it can move in all directions, it also flies like a helicopter but is also capable of landing on the face Land, therefore, has an advantage over reconnaissance aircraft in detecting targets in cities, " said Dr Bill Crowther, head of design.

With a width of more than 0.9 m, Tumbleweed is small enough to pass through a doorway and can reach speeds of 48 km / h. Its engine is so quiet that it is hard to hear the engine noise on the busy street.

High-ranking officials in the UK Ministry of Defense hope that production costs for cameras like Tumbleweed will not be too high for them to reduce losses in people in Afghanistan and other war zones.