I spy an eye in the sky... the ultimate in hi-tech surveillance

However, anyone glancing towards Carlton Towers at Carlton, near Selby, yesterday morning might have been forgiven for wondering if mankind was alone.

But the small dome-shape dot with a metal ring around it heralded not visitors from another world but a new ground-breaking business opportunity for a Yorkshire firm.

A similar "flying eye" had been observed by Judy Jackson, managing director of MRL, being used by Staffordshire Police for crowd surveillance at a concert in Stafford.

Now the West Yorkshire company has become the first commercial organisation in Britain to be granted a licence to operate a new flying eye.

Yesterday bosses put the flying machine through its paces high over the rooftops and lawns of historic Carlton Towers.

MRL, which does not stand for anything other than the initials of an older company, had made a name for itself in health and safety, carrying out audits for firms, and risk management work for large music events.

Developed by the military for bomb detection work, the invention has been adopted by police for crowd control and following vehicles.

However, as Ms Jackson watched the spybot bobbing about and hovering on its small battery-powered rotor blades, she realised its use need not be confined to the 999 services.

She said it was the first of this particular model for civilian purposes, as far as she was aware. Small enough to fit on a coffee table, the drone's dome houses the working batteries.

The camera hanging beneath the metal collar records both still and moving images, making it ideal for surveying tall buildings and other hard to reach structures such as electricity pylons.

Other applications could include pipe inspections, traffic reports, and checking the extent and damage caused by floods.

It is controlled from the ground using a hand-held remote similar to a PlayStation controller, which also features a screen showing flight

from the point of view of the robot eye.

The "spybot" is used by the military in war zones for surveillance or searching in dangerous or difficult terrain.

"A predator drone though is much bigger. This one is a metre across, and circular, It would fit on the top of most coffee tables," Ms Jackson added.

"Once we saw it we started thinking about different uses. We have lots of interest from people such as power companies, and owners of inaccessible buildings.

"It stays up in the air using the same technology as helicopters. It is very much a small unit to be used reasonably close to the ground."

So will the company be responsible for a surge in UFO (flying saucer) reports once the eye in the sky begins roving at 30mph over the Yorkshire countryside?

"It seems bound to attract attention, since much of the time it will be hovering in mid-air recording detailed images," Ms Jackson added.

"We have not had any UFO scares. Neither do we expect any. Mind you, people might think it is UFO. It is not big enough to put company logos on."

In techno babble, the drone is a micro-UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) with full closed circuit TV capabilities which can be used to survey inaccessible or hazardous locations.

But it is being marketed simply as the MRL Eye. However, this particular eye in the sky will never get any more of a bird's eye view of the earth.

Although developed to fly much higher, it is banned from Civil Aviation Authority regulations from going more than 400ft, to avoid becoming a hazard to aircraft.

Apart from that the sky's the limit, as they say – until the batteries run out.

The drones are coming...

Unmanned flight has become increasingly common in recent years.

In war zones the drones can be used to patrol vast desert areas with cameras, or be armed to rain death from the skies.

Initially, the military regarded them as surveillance tools, but soon realised how easily they could be armed with rockets and other weapons.

The robots are seen as a way of sparing lives by keeping human

operators out of harm's way in the war on terror.

However, the technology can become a double-edged sword because many of the vehicles, such as Predator Drones, are driven by remote pilots far from the front line, often in the US.

More than once this has led to irritation to ground commanders as the virtual pilots stray into air space needed to provide support to troops.