Situatate a tiny camera (how small CAN they get these days?) behind the "driver's seat" of a Matchbox car and set it on a stunt track. Criss-Cross-Crash will never seem the same.

(Also good for model rockets [I think it's been done], RC vehicles, and those toy hamsters-in-a-ball)

Cars not for use with some sets.
-- centauri, Jul 12 2000

Add some car data recorders for more fun. http://www.halfbake..._20Data_20Recorders
Special software will allow you to simulate your car's movement on a computer screen complete with a readout and display of its vectors. Perfect for physics classes. [centauri, Jul 12 2000, last modified Oct 04 2004]

Wireless micro camera http://64.132.25.17...oduct/AVX900S4.html
Pretty dang small. (If above link rots go to www.supercircuits.com and search for "Nanobug." In general a great site: gotta love a place that sells a "necktie camera.") [rmutt, Jul 12 2000, last modified Oct 04 2004]

The halfbakery shirt (back) http://www.halfbakery.com/img/back.jpg
This idea immortalized on the halfbakery shirt. [centauri, Jul 12 2000, last modified Oct 04 2004]

Desktop Rover Micro-Vehicle with Wireless Video Camera http://www.plantraco.com/
As per [kraksmokr]. Not quite a matchbox car, but... [egnor, Jul 12 2000, last modified Oct 04 2004]

BAKED! http://www.asciimation.co.nz/cameracar/
Hahahahahaha! [centauri, Nov 06 2005]

Hot Wheels Video Racer http://www.hotwheel...m/videoracer#/home/
[tatterdemalion, Jul 12 2011]

Should the camera record the stunt on a smartcard/memorystick or something, or should it be broadcast to your PC? (infrared? Bluetooth? FM?) Isn't the first possible with Lego?
-- rrr, Aug 15 2000


It might be a fun product not only to put in toys. Just market a little camera (as small as possible) that records x seconds at a preset time. Kid inserts camera in toy preset at 2 minutes later. Prepares racetrack. Hears beeps for countdown. Cameraclick sound indicates the camera is running. Does stunt. Cameraclick indicates time is up. Takes out memorystick and hooks it up to PC with USB port. QT-movie loads on PC. Kid uploads QT-movie to his website. Alternative uses: kid mounts camera on dashboard of dad's car to see him commuting to work. Kid attaches camera to dog's collar and sends it into a forbidden room/terrain. These little movies will be a hit on the web like the Lomo camera was a few years ago.
-- rrr, Aug 15 2000


They're making really dinky little digital cameras these days, Ive seen them in the back pages of Computer Shopper. Dont know about after adding memory, interface, battery etc, could work on an RC car probobly. Could use it to keep track of the kids when I'm trying to get some computer work done - have to be indestructable though.
-- Scott_D, Aug 26 2000


Even if someone had patented it, what's important is that maybe this idea was a fresh one in the mind of the writer. I too would be interested to know who, if anyone, first came up with it. But what would be REALLY interesting is finding out that two different people had the same idea at different times. That happens a lot. My great grandfather was an inventor. He was one of the "I got it first" guys. But maybe he wasn't really the first...

Anyway, I love this idea.
-- rachele, Dec 02 2000


Deja vu! Yesterday, New Year's Eve, I was visiting friends who'd bought themselves a bunch of tiny (well, 6") radio-control cars and were racing them around the house. "Wouldn't it be great," mused one friend, "if we could put a wireless camera on one of these?"
-- Ander, Jan 02 2001


rachele - I've long thought it would me fun to have a mini video camera in a remote-controlled airplane, and I've also wanted to have a remote-controlled toy submarine, for which such a camera would be almost necessary. And I've seen an HO-scale model train with a video camera offered in catalogs (it doesn't even have to broadcast -- the signals are sent along the track.

I do a lot of inventing/development both in and out of my job, and I'm constantly running in to instances of someone else having independently thought of something I developed. I also periodically encounter a commercial product or a business that I had independently conceived and had kept secret, waiting for the right opportunity to exploit it.

There's a theory that is periodically proposed that the first conception or reduction to practice of an idea is difficult, but once it is done, it then becomes universally easier for subsequent attempts, even without communication between the orignator and the subsequent attempts (by setting up some kind of karmic vibration in the ionosphere, or some other unknowable mechanism). I'm skeptical of this, but there are some interesting stories (or urban myths?) in support of it (e.g., American children with no exposure to Chinese writing are reportedly able to pick Chinese characters over similar-looking non-authentic characters as being authentic, with statistically significant accuracy).
-- beauxeault, Jan 02 2001


I know exactly where you can buy one of these. It's at plantraco.com. Good Luck!
-- kraksmokr, May 02 2001


Yes, see link.
-- egnor, May 03 2001


What a misguided and incestuous child.
-- LoriZ, Oct 04 2001


Sort of a miniaturized mars pathfinder? Give it little solar-cell or battery powered motorized wheels for added mobility and send it into hazardous environments to survey the situation? Rescue, police, military and intelligence possibilities here... I think the battery option makes it a tad bigger than a Hot Wheels car, more like a Tonka Toy.
-- whlanteigne, Sep 27 2002


Nice link centauri. Welcome back. It's been a long time.
-- DrBob, Nov 06 2005



random, halfbakery