Such a creative solution: This grapefruit-sized object is a throwable panoramic camera. Called the Pit Viper 360, it was developed by a company called Bounce Imaging. It’s covered with six cameras and thermal imaging sensors, so it can provide infrared images.
It’s designed for the military and law enforcement, and the idea is that you toss it into a room (you can even throw it through a glass window, it’s ruggedized) and it sends a 360-degree image to your smartphone, allowing you to look around the room. It also serves as a two-way speaker, allowing you to chat with hostage takers.
Rather than toss it, you can also screw it onto the end of a pole, tie it to a rope (handy if you need to recover it) or adhere it to surfaces as a fast-mounting security cam. The demo video shows all kinds of nifty applications:
