"Hackers have military tech envy, so they go about trying to replicate it," said Jeff Moss, Defcon's founder.

To the drone airplane makers, it's simple human nature. "Everybody wishes they could have an F-22, no matter what they say," Tassey said.

In addition to the spy drone and the grenade-launched camera, there is also software that could turn thousands of mobile phones into a spontaneous wireless network capable of passing messages around without the Internet or a cellular network. Creator Thomas Wilhelm calls his project , and on Saturday, he released Android software that uses Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to help information hop from phone to phone.

It turns out that all three of the Defcon hacking teams think that their projects could save lives. Tassey and Perkins say the drone could be used to locate mobile signals from survivors after a disaster like Hurricane Katrina, and Wilhelm sees his project doing similar work. Once they've downloaded Auto-BAHN software, mobile phone users will have a way of connecting to other Auto-BAHN phones within Wi-Fi or Bluetooth range -- and passing on messages with a click of a button. "The idea is that under emergency circumstances you can get information to the proper emergency responders when there is no telecommunication network online," Wilhelm said.

And grenade-launched camera maker Vlad Gostrom was inspired to work on the device by his time as a ground search-and-rescue specialist with the U.S. Civil Air Patrol in New Jersey. In the bush of the Pine Barrens, teams would constantly hit areas that they just couldn't search over, leaving holes in their search coverage. "Everyone likes to report 100-percent coverage," Gostom said. "This would allow someone to actually achieve close to 100-percent coverage without going into a hazardous environment."