Wi.Spi. Who do you spy?

I’m not a gadget-y type of person. I don’t have to possess the leading edge on anything. I would get bored with Siri after asking the second question. I don’t lull myself to sleep counting small electronic devices. I am not, in short, consumed by electronics.

Nonetheless, I am always somewhat intrigued by what happens in Vegas during the annual Consumer Electronics Show, held last week.

Most of it, of course, I would be just as happy if it stayed in Vegas. (Don’t like it. Don’t love it. Get way too much of it.)

Still, I did glance through a report on some of the goodies from this year’s show on Boston.com, and for me the biggest oh-no is the Wi.Spi helicopter, a remote-controlled toy that one can operate with their iPhone or Android device.  Us Blackberry bores have to be content with checking e-mail and looking at tiny versions of PowerPoint slides. We don’t get to do cool stuff like spy on our neighbors with a remote-controlled helicopter that also does video surveillance. (Wi.Spi will be commercially available in time for next Christmas, at the low-low price of $120.)

Not that I am completely averse to spying. I enjoy a good eavesdrop now and then. We used to have neighbors who got into tremendously colorful, high decibel verbal spats that carried right through their doors. I will confess that a couple of times I stood in the hall, spending a few seconds more than was absolutely necessary to lock the door behind me so that I could catch a few segments of their squabbles. This duo – who presented themselves as ultra-proper preppy (him) and sweetness and light (her) – went at it about her ignorance about things financial; his Internet porn habit; her useless, lay-about son. (Before this couple had moved into our building, my husband and I had actually overheard them viciously (but in a conversational tone) bickering about money in our favorite neighborhood restaurant. They were at the next table, and when they had their public face on while talking to their waiter, we learned a bit about where they were moving from, what he did for a living, etc. A few weeks later, they showed up in our building, and I recognized them from the restaurant.)

Not that I seek out opportunities, but an occasional good ED* – which is what I say, sotto voce, when I want my husband to clam up when we’re out – is enjoyable, and, in retrospect, is something I’ve always done. Which is how I got the nickname, from my father, of “radar-ears.”

Hey, I couldn’t help it if, in our pokey little house, my bedroom was right next to the living room.

It’s not that my parents had all that many interesting conversations, but the odd tid-bit would come up every once in a while.

Hell, it’s one of the best ways for kids to start piecing together the Mysterious and Remote World of Adults.  If you don’t want your kids to listen in on you, don’t have kids.

But overhearing is one thing; out-and-out spying is another.

A toy that does video surveillance?

What a terrible (albeit inevitable) idea.

One thing to catch someone with their voice raised. If you don’t want to be overheard, speak softly. Close the door, shut the windows. Learn Ameslan. Caveat speaker.

Quite another thing to catch someone, metaphorically or otherwise, with their pants down when they could and should have the expectation of privacy.

I found a bit more about the Wi.Spi on Mother Nature Network, where I read that,

Virtual pilots and drivers [there’s also a video surveillance car] can watch the video streaming live and also record it for upload to YouTube and other sites.

Such fun…

One of the first commandments of marketing is Know Thy Customer, and Ian Chisholm, marketing director of Interactive Toy (makers of Wi.Spi), characterizes his as “mature wallet, immature mentality.”

Chisholm believes that “people might use them to spy on people in the neighboring cubicles at work.”

One more reason to be happy-dappy that I know longer work full-time. (Hey, I saw your grouchy boss on YouTube trying to swat a helicopter out of her office with a silk scarf.)

But it does give me a swell product idea.

How about making something for those of us who value our privacy and don’t want to be surveilled by folks with “mature wallet; immature mentality.” I’m thinking a toy RPG so we can shoot the toy video surveillance helicopter down.

Are you listening, Interactive Toy?

Next year in Las Vegas!

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*That’s eavesdrop – not the other ED.