There are some pretty cool concept spy gadget pics posted over @ Wire.com from an interesting book called Spycraft by Robert Wallace & H. Keith Melton.

Spymasters have long sought special technology to enhance security of agents risking their lives to steal and communicate secrets. Application of advanced U.S. technology to espionage focused by America’s entrance into the “spy game” during World War II, transformed intelligence operations forever. Unfettered by clandestine tradition, the boundless wartime ingenuity of American engineers and scientists launched a technological revolution in espionage.

For the first time, a former head of the CIA’s Office of Technical Service (OTS) and an internationally acclaimed espionage historian join forces to tell the story of the covert devices critical to America’s intelligence operations for more than half a century. SPYCRAFT recounts never before revealed details of the early false starts and frustrations OTS overcame to achieve eventual technological breakthroughs and operational successes unequaled in the shadowy world of espionage. SPYCRAFT traces the development and deployment of spy gear from secret writing and bugging devices to subminiature cameras and covert internet communications. Often incorporating technology that would not appear in consumer goods for two or more decades later, the remarkable devices of OTS were instrumental in winning the Cold War and fighting terrorism from South America to Moscow and in the jungles of Vietnam to the mountains of Afghanistan.

A couple of the pics were pretty cool, the .22 caliber cigarette that shots one shot, the mechanical dragon fly drone that is pretty close to being reality, and a funky hidden camera to shoot pics of classified documents.

However, the spy watch camera looks like one of those old fashioned cameras with the accordian front; hardly covert at all. We like the tiny Hidden Spy Camera Lighter.

While hidden Lighter Camera might look like a normal lighter, hidden inside is a tiny 300,000 pixel (.3 Megapixel) CMOS camera that takes 30 high quality SVGA pics that upload to your PC with the included USB cable.

If you need to take discrete pics quickly, you might want to consider the Hidden Spy Camera Lighter. Find out more info at our online Spy & Surveillance Store.

Protect your privacy,

Christopher Winkler
Spy & Surveillance Product Expert
EyeSpyPro.com/LighterCamera