The Meccano Spykee Spy Robot is a high tech machine that can guard your home and keep in contact with you via the internet. Spykee is equipped with a camera, microphone and WiFi allowing you to use your PC to keep control of this mobile CCTV robot from anywhere in the world.

With a built-in motion detector Spykee can detect movements, sound an alarm on your computer and incredibly send you a picture of the target. Meccano allow you to build this robot yourself and offers a number of different looks. When finished let Spykee free to run around listening, watching and even lets you talk to people. Being compatible with Skype software you can use Spykee as a webcam and talk to friends over the internet or play your MP3 music through it’s speaker.

One has to consider a few items to make sure whichever route they go, that they will be happy with the investment.  All of the robots connect to a wireless router/firewall.  Typically, the home routers (Linksys, Netgear, Belkin, etc) are low-end routers, and their throughput is slow (They can only process so much traffic at a time).  Then, their CPU limits on how fast it can encrypt/decrypt wireless traffic.  One also has to consider how fast their broadband connection is (Download, and upload).  A fast upload is necessary to quickly send the video/audio outside of your home network.  You also have to take account if there is traffic already being transmitted within your network.  Latency is another huge factor one has to consider.  It might be slower during peak times to your Spykee.  Where you will be controlling your robot is crucial also.

If you’re at work, make sure to research which port(s) you will need to access the robot.  If you plan on controlling the robot while you’re at a public hotspot, be prepared for it to be choppy.  All of the hotspots I have been on were very slow due to them being public.

This information is vital in making a decision in what robot will work for you, and will work with your current network configuration.  Lastly, purchase the robot from a company that has a great return policy, like hammacher-schlemmer with their generous lifetime warranty.  Other companies offer great warranties also.  This will protect you if any issues arise, so you can either exchange or get a refund.