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A small (usually basketball sized or smaller) robot whose only purpose in life is to record or transmit an A/V feed. Usually hovers, but other variations exist.
They sometimes overlap with Spy Bots but are more closely related to harmless Attack Drones, likewise, sometimes they are magical instead of technological in nature.
See also Patrolling Mook. Contrast Animal Eye Spy.
Examples:
Anime & Manga
- Mahou Sensei Negima!: Asakura's artifact, the Oculus Corvinus/Raven's Eyes. Six small, flying robots used for spying and information-gathering. Perfect for the School Newspaper Newshound.
- A recent chapter comes up with a more complicated use for them, which involves using a ghost to transmit information from one camera to another, so other people can watch the action without being detected.
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha has the Wide Area Search spell, which has Raising Heart releasing inconspicuous floating energy orbs that remotely scan areas.
- The Android Saga of Dragon Ball Z revealed that Red Ribbon Army scientist Dr Gero had insect-sized robots monitoring the heroes for years, studying their techniques so his Androids would know exactly how to beat them. Another, possibly separate, robot was collecting DNA samples so he could create Cell.
- In Ergo Proxy, Vincent and Pino have escaped Romdeau and are now living in somewhat of a shanty-town, with about 15 people in its precinct. Vincent almost has a run-in with one, and after he and Pino settle in, more are sent out. Raul, the newly-appointed Director-General of the Citizen Security Bureau is to blame for this.
Comics
- Marvel Universe: the Rigellian Recorders.
- Astro City: In the story Father's Day, Jack-In-The-Box has one in the fight with the Brass Monkey. This is because he's the third Jack-In-The-Box, taking over for his predecessor whose wife is having a child. The camera lets Jack-2 monitor from his basement headquarters and give Jack-3 advice and tactical updates.
Film
Live-Action TV
- Stargate Universe: the Confession Cam.
- Stargate SG-1:
- Goa'uld have access to these.
- The SGC's MALP probes qualify as a more primitive variation, as do the UAV drones.
- Stargate Atlantis: the Wraith have them, as well.
- Human journalists in Babylon 5 regularly use hovering cameras.
- MST3K has its CamBot.
- The New Twilight Zone episode "To See The Invisible Man" had floating security drones used to watch for people breaking laws.
- One of these turned up in the Doctor Who story Silence In The Library as a link to Cal.
- A Classic Series Doctor Who example: The Fifth Doctor's second story, Four to Doomsday, also featured a similar device, known as the Monopticon, patrolling the corridors of Monarch's massive spaceship.
Literature
- One of these (called a "Public Eye") appears near the beginning of Robert A. Heinlein's novel Friday. It's used by police to detect crimes in progress.
- Larry Niven's short story "Cloak of Anarchy" had the Copseye, which was used to monitor Free Parks. It also had a stunner to knock out those breaking the Parks' sole rule: don't hurt others.
- Uglies: Aya has one of these named Moggle that she treats like a pet.
- The optic probe device used by the Martians in The War of the Worlds - the book and all movies - roughly fills this trope.
Real Life
- Micro Air Vehicles are being designed for the army.
- There was, for a time, a plan to develop softball-sized robots of this type for use on the International Space Station. They would be capable of moving about on their own by using ducted fans to produce thrust. Since the ISS is in a microgravity environment, they would effectively be capable of flying around the station in adherence to the spirit of the trope. Likely served as the inspiration for the SGU Kinos mentioned above.
- The Air Hogs Hawk-eye is the civilian version, you can even post your findings online.
Tabletop RPG
Video Game
- Banjo-Kazooie
- Baldur'sGate2 had a magical one in the form of the Wizard's Eye Spell. It could go anywhere the player could and was invisible, though not invulnerable. Anything that could see through invisibility, could kill it.
- As you get closer to Cortex's castle in Crash Bandicoot, these start to appear.
- Deus Ex had an augmentation that allowed you to deploy one of these to scout. It was considered excessively expensive for it's utility.
- Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project has a variation that explodes in close proximity to Duke.
- Fallout 3: Eyebot robots, have a defence laser but are usually friendly to the player character.
- Though despite the name, there is no evidence they actually provide surveillance, just floating, moving radios that can defend themselves passably.
- A RobCo exhibit in Fallout New Vegas confirms that they can "recognize your face and voice with advanced facial and auditory recognition technology."
- Some Eyebots in Fallout 3 can call in reinforcements after a certain stage in the game and a random encounter shows two wastelanders discussing whether or not its spying on them whilst it hovers inbetween the pair.
- In Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, the player can use a Sikorsky Cypher UAV to scan hostile areas.
- Half-Life 2: Scanners.
- "The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword'' has the Sentrobes, which are flying security cameras with a short-range projectile launcher and the ability to launch self-propelled bombs with a timed fuse.
- Mario: the hover-cam is operated by the cloud-riding Lakitu's, controlling said camera with a fishing pole, odd but close enough.
- Mass Effect: standard issue for reporters.
- Modern Warfare: "OUR UAV IS ONLINE!"
- Perfect Dark: the "Camspy".
- Prototype: Drones are able to detect Alex and deploy a reaction squad.
- StarCraft: Observers
- In X: Beyond the Frontier the Xperimental Shuttle is equipped with a camera drone that is basically an excuse for the devs to have a free-flying external view.
- One of the Ogre Magi spells in Warcraft 2.
Western Animation
- The press uses them in Batman Beyond.
- Futurama
- Wakfu: the noxies.
- By "noxies", do you mean the little bug like machines that Nox sends out? The ones that have on several occasions been shown to drain the wakfu from things? Yeah, they're completely harmless and only used for scouting.
- The non-syndicated Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon, affectionately known as SatAM
 - featured such "spy orbs" utilized by Robotnik to monitor his city.
- The Autobots' Sky Spy from Transformers Generation 1 was a long range satellite version of this.
Web Comics
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