Topic: Drone - on March 16, 2012 at 10:52:00 AM CET
Drone Attack: How We Might Willingly Embrace The Surveillance Society
It's striking how drones have passed from a mysterious weapon used to wreak destruction in distant lands to something that could well become a familiar sight in the skies of the US and Europe. Meanwhile, the technology is progressing rapidly, allowing drones to fly in synchronized swarms and even to be printed out by the sheet. But what might some of the effects on our daily lives be -- for example in the sphere of privacy?
That's what an interesting post by David Eaves begins to explore. As he points out, some uses of drones seem so sensible that it would be almost irresponsible not to adopt them:
"it is entirely conceivable that, in 5-7 years, there could be drones that would follow your child as he walks to school. You can of course, already choose to monitor your child by giving them a cell phone and tracking the GPS device within it, but a drone would have several advantages. It would be harder for someone to destroy or "disconnect" from your child. It could also record and save remotely everything that is going on - in order to prevent anyone from harassing or bullying them. It might even remind them to look both ways before crossing the street, in case they forget. Or, because of its high vantage point, it could pick out and warn your child of cyclists and cars they failed to observe. Once your kid is safely at school the drone could whiz home and recharge in time to walk them home at the end of the day. This may all seem creepy to you, but if such a drone cost $100 dollars, how many parents do you think would feel like it was "the responsible thing to do." I suspect a great deal."</p>
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Topic: Drone - on March 11, 2012 at 10:51:00 AM CET
Video: Israeli Drone Attacks on Palestinians
ХАМАС IAF Drone Sejeal Raining 9 - 10/3/12
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Topic: Drone - on March 9, 2012 at 11:32:00 AM CET
Deutsches Militär unterstützt hochgerüsteten Grenzschutz in Saudi-Arabien
Das Verteidigungsministerium schickt "einsatzerfahrene Soldaten" zur Ausbildung an aus Deutschland gelieferten Drohnen. Die Bundesregierung gibt zu, dass diese "zu Aufklärungszwecken im Rahmen der Grenzsicherung" genutzt werden
Auch das Verteidigungsministerium unterstützt den zivil-militärischen Grenzschutz Saudi-Arabien. Hierfür werden saudische Soldaten in der Bedienung von Drohnen geschult, die aus Deutschland geliefert werden. Im Sommer wurde bereits offenkundig, dass die Bundespolizei saudi-arabische Grenzpolizisten an einem zwei Milliarden Euro teuren System zur Bewachung seiner 9.000 Kilometer langen Grenze ausbildet. Offensichtlich sind die aus Deutschland gelieferten LUNA-Drohnen in das System des Rüstungsgiganten EADS integriert.
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Topic: Drone - on March 9, 2012 at 11:30:00 AM CET
Drones, Dogs and the Future of Privacy
Just in case you haven’t seen the memo: Drones are coming to a city near you. They are arriving on these shores by the hundreds after serving in war zones overseas, and plenty of new models are on order to meet a burgeoning domestic demand.
Why now? Under a fresh mandate from Congress, the Federal Aviation Administration will begin to relax its restrictions around the domestic use of “unmanned aerial systems,” leading to greater use of drones by public agencies and, eventually, the private sector.
The FAA’s primary concern is safety; carelessly deployed drones might literally crash your dinner party or collide with other aircraft in the already crowded skies. But civil-liberty groups are worried about what they see as a greater danger: the specter of massive surveillance.
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Topic: Drone - on March 9, 2012 at 11:29:00 AM CET
Don’t Freak Out, But Iran Is Helping Venezuela Build Drones
Iran is planning to build drones for the Venezuelan military. Just so you know, it sounds worse than it is.
That’s according to Air Force Gen. Douglas Fraser, chief of U.S. forces in South America. According to Fraser, who spoke to reporters in Washington on Wednesday, the drones are to be manufactured in Venezuela with Iranian help and will likely be used for “internal defense.” The exact kind of drones isn’t clear. But the robots are probably too small to be armed.
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Topic: Drone - on March 6, 2012 at 2:07:00 PM CET
I Love You, Killer Robots
Quadrotor drones are amazing and cute and will probably destroy us all.
It was way back in May 2010 that I first spotted the flying drones that will take over the world. They were in a video that Daniel Mellinger, one of the robots’ apparently too-trusting creators, proudly posted on YouTube. The clip, titled “Aggressive Maneuvers for Autonomous Quadrotor Flight,” depicts a scene at a robotics lab at the University of Pennsylvania, though a better term for this den might be “drone training camp.”
In the video, an insectlike, laptop-sized “quadrotor” performs a series of increasingly difficult tricks. First, it flies up and does a single flip in the air. Then a double flip. Then a triple flip. In a voice-over so dry it suggests he has no idea the power he’s dealing with, Mellinger says, “We developed a method for flying to any position in space with any reasonable velocity or pitch angle.” What does this mean? It means the drone can fly through or around pretty much any obstacle. We see it dance through an open window with fewer than 3 inches of clearance on either side. Next, it flies and perches on an inverted surface—lying in wait.
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Topic: Drone - on March 3, 2012 at 11:37:00 AM CET
Erstmals Rechtsgrundlage für zivile Drohnen
ür den Einsatz zivil genutzter Drohnen am Himmel über Deutschland gibt es jetzt eine erste Rechtsgrundlage. Der Bundesrat stimmte einer vom Bundestag beschlossenen Gesetzesänderung zu.
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Topic: Drone - on March 3, 2012 at 11:32:00 AM CET
10 Things You Didn't Know About Drones
When drones were created, how they're used, and what their future looks like.
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The first armed drones were created to get Osama bin Laden.
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So far, drones tend to crash.
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Drones are coming to America.
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The scope of U.S. military drone missions is expanding…
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…But not as fast as civilian uses.
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Most military drones don't bomb.
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Attack drones require more boots on the ground.
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Drones are becoming a lethal weapon of choice, but nobody's in charge.
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Other countries are catching up to the United States.
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The drone future is already here.
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Topic: Drone - on March 3, 2012 at 11:28:00 AM CET
Air Force Shelves $3B Worth of Brand New Drones
Far from spying on terrorists, more than a dozen high-tech surveillance drones, which together cost the U.S. government more than $3 billion, could soon be sitting in a storage facility gathering dust after top Air Force officials admitted this week the birds still are not as good as the half-century-old spy planes they were designed to replace.
Air Force Gen. Norton Schwartz appeared with Air Force Secretary Michael Donley before a Senate committee Tuesday where the two defended the service's decision to stop acquisition of the Global Hawk Block 30 drones and to shelve the 18 Block 30 unmanned drones the Air Force already has, claiming it will save the Pentagon $2.5 billion. In joint written testimony, Schwartz and Donley said the Block 30s cost too much and would require expensive upgrades to match the current version of the Cold War era U-2 spy plane's technical capabilities.
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Topic: Drone - on March 2, 2012 at 12:36:00 PM CET
Robot Quadrotors Perform James Bond Theme
Flying robot quadrotors perform the James Bond Theme by playing various instruments including the keyboard, drums and maracas, a cymbal, and the debut of an adapted guitar built from a couch frame. The quadrotors play this "couch guitar" by flying over guitar strings stretched across a couch frame; plucking the strings with a stiff wire attached to the base of the quadrotor. A special microphone attached to the frame records the notes made by the "couch guitar".
These flying quadrotors are completely autonomous, meaning humans are not controlling them; rather they are controlled by a computer programed with instructions to play the instruments.
Penn's School of Engineering and Applied Science is home to some of the most innovative robotics research on the planet, much of it coming out of the General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Lab.
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Topic: Drone - on February 29, 2012 at 1:04:00 PM CET
Drones - Privacy Paradox: Privacy and Its Conflicting Values
2012 Stanford Law Review Symposium
Co-Hosted by the Center for Internet and Society
February 2, 2012 Welcome & Drones Discussion
- Stephen Morris, MLB Company
- Ryan Calo, Stanford Law School, Center for Internet and Society
- Catherine Crump, American Civil Liberties Union
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Topic: Drone - on February 25, 2012 at 12:06:00 PM CET
Robo-Flieger für Jedermann
Sie werden in Kriegen eingesetzt - doch Drohnen sind mittlerweile auch ein Allerweltsspielzeug. Computertechnik macht die fliegenden Späher leicht bedienbar, aber nicht immer bezahlbar. Welche Flugautomaten sind erschwinglich? Und wie lässt man sie aufsteigen?
Drohnen patrouillieren nicht mehr nur über Krisengebieten, man wird sie künftig auch immer häufiger in und über deutschen Städten sehen. Der Bundestag hat einen Entwurf zur Änderung des deutschen Luftverkehrsgesetzes durchgewunken, der den Robo-Fliegern dieselben Rechte zugesteht wie bemannten Flugzeugen. Hobby-Drohnen allerdings betrifft die Änderung in der Regel nicht. Zumindest dann nicht, wenn sie "ausschließlich zum Zweck des Sports oder der Freizeitgestaltung betrieben werden", wie es die Bundesregierung in einer Antwort auf eine kleine Anfrage der Linken formuliert hat.
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