They are recording every statement and gesture by the participants based on the imagery and sound being broadcast wirelessly from the executive's pen.

There are many cool, new technologies becoming available, a spokeswoman for the Steadfast Group, a consulting company that works with utilities on critical infrastructure issues, told UPI's Wireless World. This includes camera-video transmitters disguised as pens.

It might sound like a spy movie, but such monitoring and sensing technology is available to make that kind of surveillance happen routinely. Major carriers, such as Verizon Wireless, are investing upwards of $4 billion per year to expand and maintain their national networks, while smaller, entrepreneurial firms are creating new technologies that take advantage of bolstered wireless capacity.

Some of the technologies are potential threats - such as wireless camera pen - but homeland security is driving most of the new developments. Networks of wireless sensors, miniature video cameras and low-power transceivers, all with the ability to process, send and receive data, are quite promising, experts said.

In addition to conventional surveillance and monitoring applications, wireless video networks can be used in a number of novel applications that will enhance national security, said Thomas Hou, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. Wireless sensor video networks have important applications that could have significant impacts throughout society.

The applications are changing the way police work and customs searches, are conducted, for examples:

-- Officials in Trenton, N.J., recently installed wireless video cameras throughout the state capital for homeland security applications.

-- Executives at the seaport in Jacksonville, Fla., recently added an all-digital wireless Internet security system, based on guidelines from the Department of Homeland Security's Transportation Security Administration.

-- Nuclear plants, petrochemical facilities and domestic military bases are adding wireless video to prevent unauthorized persons from entering.

Ensuring that no unauthorized person gains entry to a secure facility or sensitive area - whether at a nuclear plant, industrial plant, government mission-critical facility, airport or commercial building - is a top homeland defense priority, Seth Ellis, chief executive officer of Digital Infrared Imaging, a developer in Orlando, Fla., told Wireless World.

Some advanced infrared-imaging cameras are so sensitive and sophisticated they can detect whether a figure a mile away is a person crawling on all fours to avoid detection or simply a dog walking along.

Research to develop these technologies is proceeding in the private sector and government-sponsored university projects alike. Last year, the Office of Naval Research provided Hou with a grant of $300,000 to merge wireless sensors, and video networks. New mathematical formulas - algorithms - for computer programming, as well as new techniques, are essential to the projects.

Developing good solutions for these networking problems is the key to unlocking the full potential of a large-scale, wireless video sensor network, Hou said.

Major corporations, such as Motorola, are involved, too, seeking to enhance security wirelessly, even for homes. The company, headquartered in Schaumburg, Ill., has developed a wireless home monitoring and control system comprising cameras, sensors and software that consumers can operate from a desktop computer at the office.

This enables homeowners to record when their children get home from school and if they arrive on time. If the sensor network detects a difference in the daily schedule, the computer alerts the homeowner via e-mail, a spokeswoman for Motorola told Wireless World.

The technology, to be made available next month through retail outlets, also gives homeowners a way to monitor environmental changes in the home, such as water leaks or temperature changes.

Such wireless technologies enjoy an advantage over earlier monitoring devices.

Wireless network cameras help reduce installation costs and provide surveillance for hard to reach areas, a spokesman for Axis Communications, a developer of network surveillance technologies, told Wireless World. This trend is expected to grow as wireless networks expand.

Federal policymaking, in addition to reduced prices, also is helping to push along the trend.

This week, the U.S. Senate approved several measures, already passed by the House of Representatives, which will make it easier for companies to provide wireless-network services for consumers. This includes the auction of the 90 MHz band on the radio spectrum that currently is used by the military and now is being reallocated for consumers.

Another bill will foster the deployment of wireless 911 networks through a $250 million appropriation.

The roll-out of next-generation wireless services will enable American consumers to enjoy faster and more versatile functions on their wireless devices, said Steve Largent, president and chief executive officer of the CTIA, The Wireless Association, in Washington, D.C.

Both bills are headed to President George W. Bush's desk for his expected signature.

Still, if the good guys can access the wireless devices, so can the bad guys. Wireless technology experts said there is a burgeoning market for preventing wireless surveillance technology from penetrating private offices and networks.

Corporate systems can be compromised as easily as bringing an antennae, purchased at a retail store, within the walls of the company building, thus getting inside a firewall, said a spokeswoman for the Steadfast Group. A homeowners video stream can be accessed by a potential intruder through the homeowner's Internet address.

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