World's Smallest Camcorder Fits Inside a Pack of Gum

Many camcorders have been billed as the world's smallest, but only one has been small enough to hide inside a pack of gum. The Red Ferret Journal says the Micro Camcorder is the smallest high-resolution, real time digital camcorder ever produced. The camera can record up to 33 hours of video at 15 frames per second via its internal pinhole camera. Hide it inside a pack of gum, and no one will never know you're secretly recording them.

According to its web site, the camstick includes a tiny Micro SD card that can hold 1GB of video and will record video for up to two hours on a single charge. Anything you record will be in 3GP format, which can be played on any PC using programs like RealPlayer or Quicktime. Judging by a video taken with the Micro Camcorder, the quality appears to be pretty decent for Web use. You can easily find other pocketcams marketed to the YouTube generation like the Aiptek DV 4500, Flip Video, and RCA EZ101 for under $200, but they all seem gigantic in comparison. Anyone with intentions to take voyeuristic shots won't mind paying the relatively low price of $195 for a novelty spy gadget.

It's amazing how easy it's become to spy on anyone. The type of technology available online is extremely sophisticated, and usually goes undetected. Judging by stories circulating on the Web, spy gadgets are a hot commodity among scorned lovers and voyeurs alike. I guess my concern is the way people use this type of technology, especially in a day and age when many don't know where to draw the line or don't understand privacy laws.

For example, one very disturbed man in London thought that because the paparazzi got away with taking photos of celebrities revealing their underwear climbing in and out of cars, it made it ok for him to take compromising shots of private citizens. The IT consultant fitted a miniature camera into one of his shoes, and another one into a shoulder bag in order to film up women's skirts. When police arrested him and searched his home, they found additional footage taken with hidden cameras placed inside women's toilets and showers. He admitted to the court his intentions were to sell the footage on the Internet for profit.

Unfortunately, this isn't an isolated case. Cyber-peeping has been around for some time now, and the miniaturization of technology is making it easier for peeping Toms to get away with taking such photos until they get caught, which can sometimes take years. Just like in the case of the Australian man who admitted to filming women for four years using a camera hidden in his shoe, and another one in his Walkman. This makes me really nervous about cameras that can be hidden inside a pack a gum.

Anyway, what do you think? Is it worth nearly $200 to fit a camera in a pack of gum?

Updated: Those wondering, you can get one at Spy Gadgets for $195.

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