Their rough-hewn prototype sits in a small room at Trust Automation's headquarters in San Luis Obispo, California, using a water-filled vitamin bottle as a shock absorber. ("It runs like a Corvette on a Pinto engine, " Safreno says, smiling.) The ratty demo reel first shows a 22-second clip of an actor walking on a grassy lawn, past a blurred van, squirting water with a hose, at 24 fps.