Eye Spy Mini | Compact Surveillance, Tracker, ALPR & Drone Awareness Detector

Before You Order

• Included: Eye Spy Mini with firmware installed, built-in color display and integrated 120mAh rechargeable battery.
• Power: Integrated rechargeable battery for portable use; USB power supports extended operation.
• Detection and alerts: Supported Bluetooth LE and 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi signatures for ALPR, trackers, cameras and compatible drone broadcasts; visual and audible alerts.

Detection limits: Alerts depend on supported wireless signatures, signal conditions and installed firmware. The device cannot detect every target; no alert does not prove that an area is free of surveillance or tracking equipment.

Bluetooth LE and Wi-Fi monitoring run in scheduled phases. Brief transmissions can be missed while another phase is active.

Eye Spy Mini | Compact Surveillance, Tracker, ALPR & Drone Awareness Detector

Broad Wireless Surveillance Awareness in a Pocket-Sized Device

Eye Spy Mini brings the open-source Eye Spy surveillance-awareness platform to a compact, affordable device with an integrated color display.

Built on the M5StickC Plus SE ESP32 platform and shipped by ⁠STS Collective with Eye Spy firmware preinstalled, Eye Spy Mini monitors nearby Bluetooth LE and 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi activity for supported wireless signatures associated with personal trackers, automated license plate readers, body-camera equipment, drones, surveillance cameras, smart glasses, iBeacons, and other devices.

Eye Spy Mini provides local visual and audible feedback through its integrated display and alert hardware.

No cloud account. No subscription. No required phone.

Eye Spy is an open-source project developed by ⁠SimeonOnSecurity.

⁠View the Eye Spy source code, detection logic, documentation, and development history on GitHub.

What’s Included

• 1 × Eye Spy Mini
• Eye Spy ESP32 firmware preinstalled
• Built-in 1.14-inch color display
• Visual detection and score information
• Audible detection alerts
• Bluetooth LE monitoring
• 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi scanning
• Passive Wi-Fi promiscuous monitoring
• Confidence-based aggregate scoring
• Integrated rechargeable battery
• Physical controls
• Pocket-sized enclosure
• No cloud account required
• No subscription required
• Firmware preinstalled; charge before use

What Eye Spy Looks For

Eye Spy is designed for broad wireless surveillance and tracking awareness rather than concentrating on one type of infrastructure.

Current Eye Spy detection logic includes supported signatures associated with:

• Flock Safety ALPR systems
• Motorola Solutions and Vigilant Solutions ALPR/LPR systems
• Axon equipment
• Apple AirTags
• Samsung SmartTags
• Tile trackers
• OpenDroneID-compatible drones
• Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses
• Surveillance and IP cameras
• Apple iBeacons
• Supported Bluetooth modules associated with some card-skimmer designs
• MeshCore nodes
• Persistent unidentified Bluetooth LE devices
• Additional supported surveillance and tracking signatures

Supported surveillance-camera manufacturer signatures include equipment from vendors such as Hikvision, Dahua, Axis, Ring, Nest, Arlo, Wyze, Reolink, FLIR, Amcrest, Vivotek, Hanwha, Mobotix, and Ubiquiti UniFi.

Eye Spy identifies supported wireless characteristics. A detection does not establish the ownership, purpose, or use of a nearby device.

Open-Source Eye Spy Firmware

Eye Spy Mini ships preconfigured with the open-source ⁠Eye Spy project.

The firmware combines Bluetooth LE monitoring, Wi-Fi scanning, promiscuous Wi-Fi monitoring, wireless signature matching, persistent-device tracking, and aggregate scoring.

Researchers and developers have direct access to the detection logic, signature tables, scoring system, source code, tests, documentation, and development history.

Eye Spy is developed by ⁠SimeonOnSecurity and released under the Apache License 2.0 with SimeonOnSecurity attribution.

How Eye Spy Works

Eye Spy rotates through several wireless monitoring phases.

The normal scan cycle consists of approximately:

• 9 seconds of Bluetooth LE monitoring
• Approximately 3 seconds of Wi-Fi scanning
• 5 seconds of promiscuous Wi-Fi monitoring
• Repeat

The ESP32 shares radio resources between Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, so Eye Spy schedules these detection engines rather than running every radio mode simultaneously.

This architecture lets a small ESP32 device monitor several categories of supported wireless technology.

Multiple Detection Methods

Eye Spy does not rely on one wireless identifier.

Depending on the detection category, the firmware evaluates supported:

• Bluetooth LE device names
• BLE service UUIDs
• BLE manufacturer data
• BLE advertisement payloads
• Wi-Fi BSSIDs
• Manufacturer OUIs
• Wi-Fi SSIDs
• 802.11 management frames
• OpenDroneID characteristics
• Persistent BLE-device behavior
• Signal strength
• Multiple independent indicators

The resulting events feed Eye Spy’s aggregate awareness score.

Simple CLEAR, CAUTION & ALERT Scoring

Eye Spy Mini presents the surrounding wireless environment through three primary status levels.

CLEAR | Score 0–2

A green status indicates no significant supported detections have accumulated.

CAUTION | Score 3–5

An amber status indicates one or more lower-confidence observations or a combination of supported indicators.

ALERT | Score 6+

A red status indicates the score has reached Eye Spy’s alert threshold through high-confidence or multiple accumulated detections.

Different signatures contribute different values based on their specificity.

The score decreases by one point every 60 seconds without new qualifying activity.

A 120-second re-score cooldown prevents the same detection type from repeatedly increasing the score without limit.

Built-In Color Display

Eye Spy Mini includes a compact 1.14-inch color TFT display.

The interface keeps the current Eye Spy score and awareness state visible without requiring a separate phone or computer.

The display presents information such as:

• Current Eye Spy score
• CLEAR, CAUTION, or ALERT state
• Current scanning phase
• Number of tracked devices
• Total events
• Most recent detection type
• Signal information
• Approximate range information when RSSI data is available
• Time since the last alert

The interface changes from green to amber to red as the aggregate Eye Spy score increases.

Bluetooth Tracker Awareness

Eye Spy includes supported Bluetooth LE detection logic for several personal-tracker technologies.

These include:

• Apple AirTag
• Samsung SmartTag
• Tile

Eye Spy also maintains a persistence tracker for unidentified BLE devices.

The firmware tracks up to 50 unknown BLE addresses simultaneously and looks for devices repeatedly observed over time.

This gives Eye Spy another awareness mechanism beyond known manufacturer and service signatures.

ALPR Awareness

Eye Spy includes supported detection logic for Flock Safety and other ALPR/LPR systems.

The firmware evaluates supported:

• Flock Safety OUI and MAC-prefix signatures
• Flock-related SSID patterns
• Flock-related BLE names
• Flock external-battery signatures
• ALPR/LPR manufacturer identifiers
• Motorola Solutions and Vigilant Solutions identifiers
• ALPR-related SSID patterns

ALPR awareness is one part of Eye Spy rather than its sole purpose.

Drone Remote ID Awareness

Eye Spy includes support for OpenDroneID detection through supported Bluetooth LE and Wi-Fi broadcasts.

During promiscuous Wi-Fi monitoring, the firmware channel-hops across multiple 2.4 GHz channels while looking for supported Remote ID characteristics.

This adds drone awareness to the same pocket-sized device used for tracker, ALPR, camera, and body-camera awareness.

Body Camera & Smart Glasses Awareness

Eye Spy monitors supported Bluetooth LE characteristics associated with Axon equipment and Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.

These more specific signatures contribute higher values to the aggregate Eye Spy score.

Surveillance Camera Awareness

Eye Spy includes supported OUI and SSID signatures associated with numerous surveillance-camera platforms.

Supported manufacturer tables cover equipment from vendors such as:

• Hikvision
• Dahua
• Axis
• Ring
• Nest
• Arlo
• Wyze
• Reolink
• FLIR
• Amcrest
• Vivotek
• Hanwha
• Mobotix
• Ubiquiti UniFi

Broad camera manufacturer and SSID observations receive lower confidence values than more specific device signatures.

Persistent Device Awareness

Not every nearby device matches a known Eye Spy signature.

Eye Spy therefore includes a persistence tracker for unidentified Bluetooth LE devices.

An unknown BLE address observed repeatedly across an extended period contributes a lower-level awareness signal.

This feature is intended to highlight persistent nearby wireless devices without classifying every unidentified Bluetooth device as surveillance equipment.

Compact Surveillance Awareness

Eye Spy Mini measures approximately 48 × 24 × 8.4 mm and weighs approximately 17 grams.

Its small form factor works well for:

• Everyday carry
• Vehicle use
• Travel
• Field research
• Wireless security testing
• Privacy research
• ALPR research
• Tracker awareness
• Drone Remote ID awareness
• Cybersecurity education
• Security demonstrations
• Wireless experimentation
• Portable surveillance-awareness kits

An integrated 120mAh rechargeable battery supports portable use, while USB power supports longer vehicle or stationary operation.

Physical Controls

Eye Spy Mini uses its integrated physical buttons for direct interaction.

The primary controls provide:

A | RESET

Resets the current Eye Spy score.

B | SCAN

Restarts the current scan cycle.

This keeps basic operation local to the device.

Local Processing

Eye Spy performs its detection and scoring locally.

It does not require:

• An Eye Spy cloud account
• An STS Collective cloud account
• A surveillance-provider account
• An ALPR infrastructure account
• A phone application
• A recurring subscription

Power on Eye Spy Mini and it begins monitoring supported nearby wireless activity.

Technical Specifications

Hardware Platform

M5StickC Plus SE

Processor

ESP32-PICO-D4 dual-core processor

Up to 240 MHz

Wireless

2.4 GHz Wi-Fi

Bluetooth LE

Display

1.14-inch color TFT LCD

135 × 240 native resolution

240 × 135 landscape Eye Spy interface

Battery

Integrated 120mAh rechargeable lithium battery

Alerts

On-screen visual status

Audible notifications

Controls

Integrated physical buttons

Dimensions

Approximately 48 × 24 × 8.4 mm

Weight

Approximately 17g

Detection Limitations

Eye Spy detects supported wireless characteristics rather than the physical presence of every surveillance or tracking device.

Detection depends on a target exposing a supported wireless signature while Eye Spy is monitoring the applicable radio mode or channel.

Equipment might go undetected when its relevant radio is disabled, its wireless behavior changes, its signal falls outside usable range, it operates on an unsupported frequency or protocol, or its transmission occurs outside the applicable Eye Spy scanning window.

Manufacturers also change hardware, firmware, identifiers, and wireless behavior over time.

A CLEAR state therefore represents the current Eye Spy score based on observed supported signals. It does not establish the absence of surveillance or tracking equipment.

Broad Surveillance Awareness at an Entry-Level Price

Eye Spy Mini provides the core Eye Spy experience in a compact, display-equipped device.

You get Bluetooth LE monitoring, Wi-Fi monitoring, tracker awareness, ALPR awareness, drone Remote ID awareness, surveillance-camera signatures, confidence-based scoring, a built-in color display, and transparent open-source firmware in a pocket-sized device.

No cloud account. No subscription. No required phone.

Eye Spy is developed by ⁠SimeonOnSecurity and offered preconfigured by ⁠STS Collective.

⁠View Eye Spy Source Code & Technical Documentation.