THE U.S. Navy is funding the development of a new super-surveillance system which uses robots to snoop on humans in terrifying detail.

It has handed a $1.7 million (£1.4 million) grant to researchers from Cornell University, who are working to build a system which can "conduct surveillance as a single entity with many eyes".

The cash was handed over by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, which is dedicated to developing new forms of military and civilian technology.

Last year, we exclusively revealed that the same department discussed plans to fit humans with microchips and track their every move.

Now it wants to develop a system which lets teams of surveillance robots gather and share intelligence "at the speed of light".

"Once you have robots that cooperate you can do all sorts of things," said Kilian Weinberger, associate professor of computer science.