Real Life James Bond

If you are into spy gadgets and other 007 goodness, look no further than the "CIA's Venture Fund" In-Q-Tel. The name is actually derived from the combination of the word "intel" and the character "Q" from the Bond books.

Since In-Q-Tel was founded in 1999, the firm has reviewed more than 6,300
business plans for everything from identity recognition software to nano-sized
electronic circuits. Many proposals come in via its Web site. In-Q-Tel has put
about $200 million into more than 100 companies, beating traditional VC
investors to technologies such as the mapping software that's become Google
Earth.

One of their investments is a particular favorite of mine.

Another part of In-Q-Tel's video strategy is the 3VR investment with Kleiner Perkins. After the London subway bombings on July 7, 2005, about 1,000 British police spent six weeks sifting through video from 6,000 surveillance cameras, says Russell, who founded the company in his basement in 2003....With 3VR, every time someone passes in front of a camera, the software assigns an identification number and establishes a profile based on the geometry of the person's face. When the face is captured from a different angle or in different light, the software creates another mathematical model. The system can be programmed to recognize faces and to issue alerts once a suspect is spotted.

Bad guys beware.