Are you a boss looking to inconspicuously monitor employees? A jealous boyfriend? A member of the paparazzi? Looking to channel your inner James Bond?
Whatever the case, you may be interested in a recent project from MAKE: Magazine’s Steve Hobley, who has devised a slick spy camera embedded inside a coffee cup using an Arduino Uno (ATmega328).
How it works is relatively simple. It was designed in such a way that when you lift the cup up to take a sip, it snaps a picture. If your cover is blown, simply rotate the cup to hide the camera.
Aside from an ATmega328 based Arduino, the build calls for a JPEG camera module, an SD card shield, a Memsic 2125 two-axis accelerometer, a few resistors and two indicator LEDs which can be seen through the plastic lid — one illuminates when the tilt switch is triggered, while the other flashes to indicate a photo has been taken.
“Now, I’m not going to lie to you, installing all this stuff inside an innocent looking coffee cup is … err… tricky, to say the least,” Hobley admits. However, those wishing to create a master spy cup of their own can get a more detailed look at the step-by-step build here, or simply watch the video below.