Tiny Surveillance Aircraft Fly in Tucson

An anonymous reader writes "Science Daily reports that thirteen teams from the United States, Korea and Germany will be in Tucson April 9-11 to compete for $6,000 in prize money during the 8th International Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) Competition. MAVs are tiny, radio-controlled airplanes that carry video cameras."

Comments

wow

[Anonymous Coward]

This reminds me of the time that I broke my leg in a flying accident (everyone else died), and the doctor said, "That's going to take a long time to heel!"

Re:wow

[Anonymous Coward]

what's it like living in the "barrio"? Which gang do you roll with?

First Post for LOVE!

[Anonymous Coward]

I LOVE YOU KATIE!

You are my sunshine and you make me smile every day.

Fost Pirst

[Anonymous Coward]

Remember, if its in the Wikipedia, its true!

wow

[liquidflare]

f1rst p0st

and i live in tucson so thats really weird (maybe the delerium adds to that effect)

eeeek

[Anonymous Coward]

9-11, huh? Better hope there aren't any sandcastles or LEGO buildings around.

SPOKE IT, CLARENCE CARTER

[Anonymous Coward]

but dont spoke so fast
if my stuff aint tight enough
you can stick it up my WHOO!

I BE SPOKIN!

Do these people have morals?

[Anonymous Coward]

Do these people have morals? do they care that the technology they're helping develop will be used to KILL people in future wars, perhaps even against their own country?

I think nothing sums up the problem with american society today.

Re:Do these people have morals?

[Anonymous Coward]

Your kidding, right?

Re:Do these people have morals?

[rebeka thomas]

do they care that the technology they're helping develop will be used to KILL people in future wars, perhaps even against their own country?

I think nothing sums up the problem with american society today.

Actually as a country the USA does more to save lives than it does to kill. Groundbreaking research in medical and safety innovations, in search and rescue, being at the head of the forefront when natural disasters strike around the world, more donations to foreign nations in need for food, medical supplies and fresh water, and better care worldwide in general due to US invention.

I think if you look at the number of deaths it pales into insignificance. Let these kids play with their planes, it's all in fun

Re:Do these people have morals?

[Anonymous Coward]

Cool. I've stopped 2 kids from running out into traffic (both my own) and perhaps helped save many others by being volunteer traffic warden at their school. I figure with the blood donations I've given I've also helped save the lives of perhaps 3 other people in total. And no doubt having gone to defensive driver training I've perhaps prevented the death of an entire family over my 35 year driving history.

That's almost 10 people I've saved. By your logic, how many am I allowed to kill now "all in fun" ?. May I start with you?

Re:Do these people have morals?

[Anonymous Coward]

Fine. Will you approve then if the USA kills you in order to save other people? You will be glad then to acknowlege that your death would "pale into insignificance" compared to the good it came out of your sacrifice.

This kind of inmature reasoning is what keeps the society in a loop of war and hate.

Technology doesn't kill people. People kills people...

Re:Do these people have morals?

[Scooter]

I think you're a bit late to start the moral debate over who's the greater evil: the developer of a potential weapon, or the users of the devices. This debate has been going on for some time.

I think it would be pretty damm difficult anyway, to kill someone directly with a "MAV" (although you could, with a bit of semantic jiggery-pokey define a lump of lead as a "micro flying vehicle" :P)

There are far more destructive inventions up for the gold medal in this debate: nuclear weapons, the gun, TNT (old Alfred was clearly so upset when someone used *his* neat little invention for killing other people, he sponsored a prize for peace), etc etc.

We have had technology to snoop on each other from orbit for years now - our streets are lined with CCTV (well they are in the average UK city)so why get so fired up about a small aeroplane with a camera in it? Reconnaisance was after all, the first real military use for full size 'planes.

Do you really think "nothing" somes up the problem with American society Today? Surely there's always room for improvement!

Re:Do these people have morals?

[jridley]

You're right, technology should never be brought to war. We should go back to carpet bombing instead of laser guided munitions. We should go back to sending scouts in instead of video cameras, so they can get shot. Hell, let's go back to hand-to-hand bloodbaths.

Wars are going to happen, period. Politicians are just as willing to kill 1000 as 10 to achieve their goals. It's naieve to think that they'll be more likely to go to war because we have a camera in an RC plane.

The most likely result of having spy planes like this would be LESS casualties. Imagine being able to fly a video fly into a building where there's a hostage crisis going on and getting real time video. Imagine flying into a mosque and having video telling you who's in there, where, etc. The place could easily be filled with civilians, and we'd avoid attacking them. Or, it could be filled with armed troups, and we'd have proof to the world that we're justified in attacking.

Almost all war-related technological innovation of the last 50 years has been targeted at reducing civilian casualties, collateral damage, and exposure of our own troops to fire.

Re:Do these people have morals?

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, the goal is to kill more efficiently. That ultimately means killing fewer people, with less destruction. How's that for morals?

Re:Do these people have morals?

[Moofie]

You're right, much better to stick one's head in the sand and not advance technology. Because, of course, nobody else is going to do it if I don't, right?

I struggle with this. I am an aerospace engineer, and right now if I want to work in the field I love, I need to work for a defense contractor. This is not my ideal solution. I believe, however, that America (my country, which I do believe in) does far more good than harm with its military. I know lots of people disagree with me, and that's OK. I happen to think that this adventure into Iraq was particularly ill-advised. However, at the end of the day, helping America to design more precise weapons and surveillance systems will a) keep my country strong, and b) save peoples' lives both home and abroad.

That's my moral code. Yours might be different. Many warriors have died to defend our right to disagree. Many engineers have worked their entire lives to decrease the amount of death required to accomplish that goal. I think both are noble pursuits.

Re:Do these people have morals?

[FlyingOrca]

You're right, technology should never be brought to war. We should go back to carpet bombing instead of laser guided munitions. We should go back to sending scouts in instead of video cameras, so they can get shot. Hell, let's go back to hand-to-hand bloodbaths.

That's really not such a bad idea - limit war to symbolic hand-to-hand combat between a small number of elite warriors. But I think we need to go even further back. Say, before agriculture, when there was no need for wars of annihilation at all. Imagine it - many thousands of little tribal groups, each playing "Erratic Retaliator" to work out where and how often they rub elbows with their neighbours... Actually, it was probably better than what we have now in many ways.

Now if we could just manage to combine it with low population and high technology, we'd be getting somewhere. Cheers!

Re:Do these people have morals?

[DrKayBee]

All technology is double-edged. To someone with a really destructive bent, there's enough information out there in scientific papers to do enough harm. We were in a nanotech class where the topic was molecular adressing mechanisms used by the human body - enough information to target an organ of a specific ethnic race of humans. And all that is in the journals. As for this MAV - as an engineering project there's nothing inherently wrong in it. IMHO there's nothing wrong in investigating and developing technology. As far as its applications go, all these social / human / personal tastes start playing into the picture. As technology progresses we will become more and more `enabled' to do certain things but we will also make our own lives more and more precarious. It's up to us to keep our morals in check given that we have access to all this technology. (Afterall, guns don't kill people - do they :))

Re:Do these people have morals?

[//rhi]

Well actually it might not be such a bad idea to issue all these politicians with baseball-bats and a machete or two and let them go after each other. CNN and Faux could then give us the blow-by-blow job in glorious technicolor with hiatus as appropriate for the ads. The MAV's would be used to get those gory smashed-skull with flies close-ups that do such a good job of raising Ketchup sales.

Re:Do these people have morals?

[Anonymous Coward]

>Now if we could just manage to combine it with low
>population and high technology, we'd be getting
>somewhere. Cheers!

That's easy, build Skynet.

Re:Do these people have morals?

[Anonymous Coward]

Play-by-play announcer:

"Putin winds up, and... OOOOOH! Chuck, I think it's safe to say that Queen Elizabeth ain't pretty no more!"

Re:Do these people have morals?

[DigitalCrackPipe]

Almost all war-related technological innovation of the last 50 years has been targeted at reducing civilian casualties, collateral damage, and exposure of our own troops to fire.
Well stated. Anti-war folks have a hard time understanding that better weapons can mean less war/killing. And better information can mean a LOT less killing. Many of the things that are unreasonable are outlawed by the Geneva convention (biowarfare, etc).

Re:Do these people have morals?

[PaulBu]

Actually, it was probably better than what we have now in many ways.

Well, it's 50/50 chance (here on /.) that you are over 25 years old, right? If yes, you would be considered an OLD man in those "good old times", pretty much ready to die any time now... And yeah, from 12 to 20 you were trying to make children every year, but you were lucky if two of them survived...

Paul B.

Re:Do these people have morals?

[PaulBu]

I struggle with this. I am an aerospace engineer, and right now if I want to work in the field I love, I need to work for a defense contractor.

On the corner of Marine and Aviation, by any chance? ;-) Yeah, I can hear your sentiment, really...

Paul B.

Re:Do these people have morals?

[Moofie]

Hope springs eternal. I'm not employed yet, but I'm hoping for a birthday present. : )

Re:Do these people have morals?

[FlyingOrca]

Old once over 25? Not among hunter-gatherers, I don't think. Perhaps among agriculturalists. As to being lucky if two children survived, I think it's better to have only replacement levels than a steadily increasing population.

None of which really matters to the sense of my post, which was that pre-agricultural people (and people from non-agri. cultures up to current times) were better off IN MANY WAYS than we are. I'm not suggesting that they were better off overall, though it makes one wonder to think that most hunter-gatherers demonstrated a preference for death over living the way we do.

Humans have been around for (depending on your definition of human) something like a million years. We have these things called cultures that are basically cognitive toolkits for living. The ones most people on earth use now are very good at some things (technological progress, growing more people, wars of annihilation or absolute conquest, creating material wealth and concentrating it in the hands of the rich). They're not so good at other things (promoting happiness and mental health, protecting and sustaining the environment, limiting our own population, promoting cooperation between all humans).

It just seems to me that it's worth looking at other cultures to see what we might learn about doing things we don't currently do so well. Cheers!

And people think camera phones are prone to abuse?

[Anonymous Coward]

Come to think of it, it's pretty sad I thought of it that quickly...

In Germany...

[Anonymous Coward]

... they fly these over all those nude resorts and beaches. Such files are then kept at the highest level of Government.

Re:In Germany...

[Anonymous Coward]

i thought Rammstein ruled Germany with an iron fist?

proposed uses

[trmj]

According to the article, the research is not trivial because research "already has resulted in two master's theses [...] and future graduate research probably will focus on propeller design and ultralight control mechanisms."

Do we really need control systems this light? They have set a "wind date" for this competition for fear of a gust of wind destroying the MAVs; how will we make something reliable out of this?

Re:proposed uses

[samjam]

what does "reliable" mean?

Its the weather thats not reliable.
And the intelligence
And the double agents
And the cowards
And the enemy
And the allies

Perhaps "useful" is what is needed.

Sam

Re:proposed uses

[DoraLives]

how will we make something reliable out of this?

Think: Fly on the wall.

Before this is over, everybody is going to know everything about everybody, at which point nobody is going to give a shit about anybody. Crooks excepted, of course. Should prove interesting.

Re:proposed uses

[Anonymous Coward]

They have set a "wind date" for this competition for fear of a gust of wind destroying the MAVs; how will we make something reliable out of this?

Come on... even helicopters can't fly if there is too much wind.
It's already a great challenge to make those things fly by remote control.

Re:proposed uses

[_Sharp'r_]

So what you're saying is that all pretty females in Tucson around April 9-11 should make sure they shower in the dark?

Hmmm.... infrared....

Re:proposed uses

[JPriest]

The ones showering outside anyway. The people building these planes probably get chicks like people that read slashdot.

Interesting definition

[Anonymous Coward]

MAV- micro air vehicle Its just the people who want to use them that dictates they have cameras, all the early ones were purely micro air vehicles, nothing more, just people proving they could make stuff that small that flew under remote control. Why doesnt it surprise me that someone not only found a questionable use for them, but managed to subvert the entire acronym?

Re:Interesting definition

[Feanturi]

Why doesnt it surprise me that someone not only found a questionable use for them...

It's that "Good/Evil is in the user, not the tool" thing though. I would love to be able to fly a tiny little thing and wear goggles that let me see where "I'm" going. Sure, one could spy; or one could just have a grand ol' geeky time exploring hard to reach caves or condemned buildings or even network plenums.. Seems like having a camera on it is just a sensible way to control the thing. If the first ones didn't have that, well yeah, the tech was early still.

I, for one, welcome our acronym-subverting overlords.

Assisted Suicide of Microsoft

[Anonymous Coward]

1. Buy Aeroplane
2. Fly over Redmond
3. $&%^@#$@%^$
4. Profit!

Can these be bought off-the-shelf?

[Lorphos]

Can I buy one of them for an affordable price without having to re-solve all the problems mentioned in the article?
What video-goggles are recommended?

Re:Can these be bought off-the-shelf?

[Patrik_AKA_RedX]

Can I buy one of them for an affordable price without having to re-solve all the problems mentioned in the article?

That way you'll miss out on quite a large part of the fun. Building such a thing is more than half the fun of it. I like to build small mobile robots and usualy it takes several weeks to make it "do" something, but the cool-it-work-moment usually only last an hour or so (depending on the complexity of the "do"). Most of the fun is the actual building and designing the thing.
Building the better mousetrap is simply more fun than catching the mice.

Wouldn't it suck...

[$1uck]

If your very expensive micro/nano surveilance device was defeated by chick-a-dees? (or any other small avian). Really what would keep songbirds from trying to eat these? or raptors from taking down the bigger ones by mistake?

Re:Wouldn't it suck...

[mpn14tech]

When these become more commonly used, I could see falconry making a big comeback in the miltary.

Re:Wouldn't it suck...

[SubtleNuance]

That is a tremendous idea -- imagine the Low Tech resistence to these being specially trained raptors, who will seek out and capture these micros.

Sounds like a terrific idea for a book.

Re:Wouldn't it suck...

[John Jorsett]

imagine the Low Tech resistence to these being specially trained raptors, who will seek out and capture these micros

There's no money in THAT. What we need are big defense contracts to build anti-micro-UAVs. Then we'll have to arm our micro UAVs so they can defend themselves, then we'll have to have anti-micro-UAV air-air missiles, and then ...

Re:Wouldn't it suck...

[SubtleNuance]

Anti Anti-Missle Missles are the way to go.

The real experts in video technology

[Anonymous Coward]

Now if only it was a Micro Upskirt Video Vehicle contest, the Japanese team would win for sure!

Re:The real experts in video technology

[boudie]

Yes, and he who lose control makes gash landing.

Warp engine

[NoSuchGuy]

how will we make something reliable out of this?

Research is done in small steps, or did you hear the anouncement of a Warp engine in the next decade? Right now we are at "mega ultra sonic speed" for under 60 seconds. Next time it will be 5 minutes...

Re:Warp engine

[trmj]

did you hear the anouncement of a Warp engine in the next decade?

What?! When did that happen? I'm still waiting for my damn flying car that I was promised!

Re:Warp engine

[Deliveranc3]

Flying Car = here. It's friggin VTOL for christ sake.

Even if you don't like flying you gotta admit it beats parralel parking.

Katie is a filthy whore.

[Anonymous Coward]

She reigns rimjob queen of her housing project.

Microsoft kills. And it is a US company.

[ArsenneLupin]

Actually as a country the USA does more to save lives than it does to kill.

And yet, it stops anti-trust proceedings against companies who kill. This is criminal. Murderers should be tried, whether they are individuals or companies. Politics shouldn't allow them get off scott-free.

Yes Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer are responsible for the loss of 7 innocent lives:
Microsoft Powerpoint fingered in space shuttle crash

Where's the how tos?

[Anonymous Coward]

Where's the how tos website
for MAVs? I closaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaajj
where ?

I want to build one "radio-controlled ornithopter flies by flapping its wings at about 15 beats per second"

When is the A-MAV contest?

[Anonymous Coward]

When is the contest for Anti-MAV? Tiny rockets that shoot down MAVs.

Re:When is the A-MAV contest?

[efatapo]

When is the contest for Anti-MAV? Tiny rockets that shoot down MAVs.

You're way too late, it's called a fly swatter.

~dan
photos

Re:Do these people have morals? -

[supertsaar]

Well, While I agree with your final conclusion, (the fun bit) I think perhaps its a good idea to take a look at some facts about where the US ranks worldwide in giving econonomic aid.

Its on position 20, with a very skinny $23.76 per person per year.

Number one is Luxemburg, with a whopping $352.30 per person.

All terribly off topic, but I had to...:)

MicroWarfare

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/robotics/2 001/1/MicroWarfare/print.phtml

more on microjet at
http://defence-data.com/f2000/pagefa1006.htm

Re:MicroWarfare

[okayiaT ver.65535]

/2 001/ -> /2001/ ?

X-10 is a sponsor

[Jogar the Barbarian]

These little MAV video cameras can fly ANYWHERE!!!

I don't understand the problems

[Anonymous Coward]

Wait a minute, in Don Brown's Deception Point, they had classified MAV's flying around the Arctic Winds. Heck, one was even used to poke an eye out and then flew back to finish its surveillance job (once again in the whipping wind). Oh Damn, I guess that is why it is called fiction.

Re:I don't understand the problems

[Jackie_Chan_Fan]

As a geek, i love it. Its a great challenge, a new thing... push on.

As a citizen of this world and then of America, one can only make one observation about our world...

There never were civil rights. Its a myth because those who followed, never really beleived it applied to anyone other than themselves. Freedom is a radical experience where those with the most capital get as they please while others get monitored through mini airplanes :)

So get to work guys! Stop being so moral and ethical. Get rich and you too can have your civil rights... and imunity from the law.

Frankly i far more impressed with that recent soccer autonomous robot. As a big fan of robotics and the robotic soccer games.... I was just impressed to see what a civilization in love with technology and progress where intrigue and curiousity for the good of man kind dominates, build such a unique thing.

Sony and Honda have also done similar things. Its amazing how Japan has created so many wonderful things and how its embraced by their culture compaired to ours. We seem so quick to build new missles, spy planes etc...

Lets get started on a nice friendly game of autonomous soccer. We have our competitors in this country but... its a shame such a great and wonderfull acomplishment goes so unnoticed by our civilization.

Perhaps we just dont appreciate science and technology for the sake of creation enough. Perhaps we diserve to destroy our own culture.

Re:I don't understand the problems

[okayiaT ver.65535]

All materials become arms.

# by Canonymous Aoward ;)

Re:I don't understand the problems

[Anonymous Coward]

I belive his name is DAN Brown

Its great but...

[Jackie_Chan_Fan]

As a geek, i love it. Its a great challenge, a new thing... push on.

As a citizen of this world and then of America, one can only make one observation about our world...

There never were civil rights. Its a myth because those who followed, never really beleived it applied to anyone other than themselves. Freedom is a radical experience where those with the most capital get as they please while others get monitored through mini airplanes :)

So get to work guys! Stop being so moral and ethical. Get rich and you too can have your civil rights... and imunity from the law.

Frankly i'm far more impressed with that recent soccer autonomous robot. As a big fan of robotics and the robotic soccer games.... I was just impressed to see what a civilization in love with technology and progress where intrigue and curiousity for the good of man kind dominates, build such a unique thing.

Sony and Honda have also done similar things. Its amazing how Japan has created so many wonderful things and how its embraced by their culture compaired to ours. We seem so quick to build new missles, spy planes etc...

Lets get started on a nice friendly game of autonomous soccer. We have our competitors in this country but... its a shame such a great and wonderfull acomplishment goes so unnoticed by our civilization.

Perhaps we just dont appreciate science and technology for the sake of creation enough. Perhaps we diserve to destroy our own culture and economy.

Re:Its great but...

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps you are a moron.

Re:Its great but...

[09za]

Perhaps you are a moron.

Insightful comments....What an addition to the conversation.
It seems You are typical of the quality posters on this site. Somebody writes some thoughts...You call them a moron. You look stupid. Try to ADD something to the world ...

Re:Its great but...

[ShinmaWa]

Heh... I actually thought "Perhaps you are a moron" was rather insightful, considering the head of this thread was little more than random neural firings and tinhatted laments about the evils of the world -- supposedly because someone is making little tiny airplanes that have cameras on them.

Re:Its great but...

[Jackie_Chan_Fan]

hehehe Perhaps you're right. But I dont suggest that the world is evil because it creates tiny spy planes. Its surely an acheivement, and is an impressive goal (tiny airplanes) but i think we could devote our money and genious ideas to somehow enrich our lives a little more rather than create yet another technology to spy with. Whats next? Will they figure out a way to fire a projectile weapon from it? Why not figure out how to make an autonomous machine that automatically detects potholes in roads and fixes them automatically? Why does everything have to be about spying and war? There are other ways to use technology to enrich our lives. The autonomous soccer robots was an example. Its an exercise in inovation that inspires the best parts of us rather than that element that inspires us to continually build tanks and so forth. I dont know.. Maybe i just like smiling when i see something nice and innocent and fun while others just love to smile because they found a new way to blow shit up. And hey... i like to blow shit up too :) But our culture needs to be inspired by other things as well.

Re:Its great but...

[Jackie_Chan_Fan]

and just to drive the point home... When the UK's beagle mars lander failed, and our 2 landers succesfully landed... Cspan's washington journal call in show was full of people saying "What is the point?" and "What has Nasa and the space industry every done for man kind?" I couldnt beleive the number of people who asked this question. The common answer they sold themselves was "tang..." and they all failed to realize that they were speaking over telephones that are transmited through satalites to a different state and then broadcast over a cable channel through another satalite to their cable provider or satalive tv provider.

It just blows me away how our culture, and by OUR.. i mean American culture, fails to find all of this fascinating enough to atleast recognize it.

If things like the anual international robotic soccer games were televised on TV in America... I WOULD WATCH... And perhaps others would too.. Battlebots was a huge show. It lacked inovation though... and my friend the robot soccer games have so dramatically changed over the years from tiny slow moving robots who can barely do anything, to fully walking robots that are capable of doing handstands!

come on... This is fascinating and brilliant and our culture just doesnt give a dam unless its blowing something up.

Perhaps thast why the robot soccer games are in Japan. Where they actually appreciate such things. I guess getting two of your cities nuked will do that to you.

Re:Its great but...

[Anonymous Coward]

So get to work guys! Stop being so moral and ethical. Get rich and you too can have your civil rights... and imunity from the law.


And no time left for anything including your children...

Cool pictures and some movies of these thingies

[MBAFK]

Vision-Guided Flight for MAVs

Looks like these little blighters can be tricky to fly, they are using a computer to track the horizon to help keep them level.

Two words: 12 guage

[spoonist]

... their small size makes them difficult to bring down if they are detected.

Yeah, right. If I can take down clay pigeons with one of these, then I can take down a MAV.

Re:Two words: 12 guage

[Anonymous Coward]

good to know the privacy of rednecks everywhere is safe :)

Re:Two words: 12 guage

[Gimble]

One of which is spelt incorrectly.
The word is gauge.

More things for the paranoid to be afraid of

[macdaddy357]

Motorized moths with little cameras are spying on me! I see them wherever I go. I thing the government sent them!

Re:More things for the paranoid to be afraid of

[BobSutan]

Yeah, but they could put them to good use by flying them over Area 51.

I hate this

[Wyatt Earp]

The use of different departments using the same name for something that is different.

The MAV is a medium armored vehicle program
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/sy stems/gro und/mav.htm

Ornithopters

[davidmacq]

These are interesting. Flapping wings n such. Would it be possible to use insects in the design?

For instance could you take an exoskeleton from maybe a grasshoper, and add microparts so it's remote controlled?

Re:Ornithopters

[RoyalCheese]

I always thought it would be beter just to shrink the camera, and transmitter/receiver so they are small enough to be carried by an insect (maybe a wasp or a locust) and let the insect carry the equipment around. Then the operator could provide sensory stimulus to the insect by radio feedback, and direct it (forward, backward, left, right, up down). Then there is no power supply to worry about (power drawn from the insect's own potentials or maybe peizo electric from the wing flapping) and the insect can refuel itself by visiting flowers/ jam sandwiches or enemy picnics.

Re:Ornithopters

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree, I have thought about this too. Once a way is found to integrate a computer interface with a person/animal this very interesting. Aside from ethical considerations, consider AI is hard or impossible to develop. Controlling an animal intelligence would be efficient and cheaper way of going about it.

Think hybrid/Dog, with networked computer monitoring behavior, injecting stuff into bloodstream, etc.

Re:Ornithopters

[kinzillah]

PETA would eviscerate you. Might be able to get away with insects though, and an insect is harder to shoot.

miniature weapons delivery system

[Anonymous Coward]

In Frank Herbert's scifi novel Dune , miniaturized SMART flying weapons exist that can seek out and kill a specific person or persons. Here's a delivery system already; strap some bad stuff onto one of these contraptions and you've got lots of trouble.

I had hoped that this would take a few more years to arrive.

Thanks to miniaturization (and nanotechnology) politics will become as it was Venice during the Middle Ages, when powerful figures were usually eliminated by poisoning or other surreptitious methods.

Re:miniature weapons delivery system

[anakin876]

if you are referring to the Hunter Seekers, then actually they were remote controlled. The one that almost killed Paul (the child) was controlled by someone buried in the basement. They found the operator afterwards.

Gallun, "The Scarab," 1936

[dpbsmith]

Raymond Z. Gallun's story, "The Scarab," was published in Astounding in 1936 (and anthologized by Groff Conklin in Science Fiction Thinking Machines in 1954).

The story is set in the year 1987 and describes "a tiny thing, scarcely more than an inch and a half in length. The fancy of the craftsman who made it had given to the Scarab the form of the beetle of which it wa snamed. But its body had a metallic sheen, and its vitals were far more intricate than those of the finest watch."

It is capable of observing with its "quartz-lensed eyes" and sounds are "detectable to [its] sensitive, microphonic ears." It can fly at "terrific speed" to "the cold, unresistant texture of the stratosphere." It makes its way into meeting room where a dastardly plot is in progress. It is never made clear it relays information back to "the mind that controlled the Scarab," but when that mind "had seen and heard enough" it instructs the Scarab to land on the bad guy's neck and "a tiny part of a drop of liquid was injected into its victim's blood stream."

The good guys win.

Air rights

[Doc Ruby]

They'd better beware the high-powered lasers I test in my backyard, in my personal SETI program. I might have to sandbag the grounds with my local Quarterton Nudist meetings.

Re:Do these people have morals? -

[utahjazz]

Grandparent poster referred to "the US", your statistics refer the the US Federal Government.

Contributions to charities by the US private sector are 2% of the US GDP, which far surpasses any other nation. Most of that goes to foreign aid.

Bill Gates and Ted Turner alone surpass most countries with the billions they've spent on health care for poor countries...and none of that money is counted in your very misleading stats.

Re:Do these people have morals? -

[supertsaar]

Yeah yeah yeah. Sure. Ted Turner and Bill Gates will save you

So there are some bad purposes for this.. so what?

[El Camino SS]

Look, I see a world of better ideas about what good these things can do. Stop looking at all of the negatives.

First of all, it would help explore the tops of large building areas if need be, or could be used to cover larger high areas for search and rescue. What if a person was trapped on a cliff on a deep woods rescue? You could definitely use one to spot a way down to get them. What about just to check power lines for damage? Or to look at endangered bird nests in an inobtrusive way?

There are a lot of times where a helicopter is expensive, not available, or cannot be flown. This is a great tool to work in between those parameters, where right now, we have nothing.

A lot of you start thinking about the worst part of a purpose... like delivering a tiny bomb or spying on people. That just isn't the way it always goes.

Re:I dot und the pro -snipper3- [TR-ICI-T]

[okayiaT ver.65535]

hello! I'm poor Japanese.
I am not learning "KARATE".

I like American people and American innovative technology.
but, I don't like the American government.
Bush is masahiro Nakai. The game by a monkey.(with a dog.)

(Present BGM is: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Enola Gay.ogg

oh crap better stay inside those days

[cyrax777]

Crap I live in Tucson well better stay inside those days ;)

Re:oh crap better stay inside those days

[iswm]

Yeah, so do I. Let's join forces and bring those mini spy plan fiends down!

Re:Do these people have morals? -

[Anonymous Coward]

Exactly, that's because your government couldn't give a shit. Bombs are more important than saving lives and eradicating subsistence.

Automatically rechargeable?

[rodney dill]

Yeah but, can they automatically recharge by finding and eating sh*t?

Re:Automatically rechargeable?

[abram10]

shot? (* equals o)

Re:Automatically rechargeable?

[rodney dill]

I don't know, I've seen it used a lot in political blogs to censor out letter. I don't think anyone ever meant fook for f**k. anyway the sh*thouse cartoons don't seem to imply 'shot' as the operative word. Anyway why let facts get in the way of humor. (or attempted humor)

yuo Fai7 It

[Anonymous Coward]

Inf1nitesImally

Di3k

[Anonymous Coward]

most people into 4 Anot4er charnel

How about...

[abram10]

Let's see who can make the biggest surveillance aircraft! I haven't seen that before. READY... SET... GO! Start building!

I DO IT WRONG!!!

[Big_Ass_Spork]

I do it wrong

Laying here in the shadows of my room, I squint up at my love. My Ms. Portman. I am sore and tired after fucking her for eight solid hours. My chapped and aching dick is soaking in grits to relieve the pain. She gets on her knees and starts lapping the grits up out of the bowl. She places her beautiful hands on my penis and starts to lick the grits off my achy piece.
Massaging my nutsack she....

WAIT, I DO IT WRONG!!!!

Yanking my dick out of her mouth I throw her to the ground and shove it in to her gaping freshly fisted ass.

"OH BIG ASS SPORK!! Fuck my ass, fuck my ass good. DEEPER, my stallion, deeper!! Make a Beowulf cluster of sperm on my back!!"

"Imagine a Beowulf cluster of this baby!"

I DO IT WRONG!!!!

I continue to hump her alabaster form. Glistening with beads of sweat, she bites her lip in delight as I tear her ass open with my engorged dick.

"Queen Amidala!!" I shreik as I near climax.

She looks up at me and screams, "You are so alive in me, unlike *BSD or VA Software!!! Fill me with seed!! Yes, Yes, Yess!!!!"

"For me you are calling, hhhmmm?"

"YODA?!? What the fuck, can't you see I am using the force here?"

He savagely kicks my Natalie aside, he pulls out his large green penis and impales me...

I DO IT WRONG!!

All your sporkz are belong to the dead homiez!!

Re:So there are some bad purposes for this.. so wh

[Jackie_Chan_Fan]

Things like that would never happen with truely small scale aircraft simply because the government would not allow that technology to be used in the public arena.

Just like GPS has its limits compared to actual military GPS.

I simply do not see such military being sold openly for anyone, including our enemies to buy.

Thats just not how our government operates. Military technology companies have restraints on who, what, and when they can sell their stuff to other countries.

We have plenty of rc helicopter scale vehicles that could be used for all of those purposes. Theres no need for micro sized aircraft for the examples you presented.

I do agree though. Something positive will come out of it eventually perhaps. But do we really need these things in the general public?

The government will ask themselves that eventually and decide for us.

Skynet?

[FlyingOrca]

OK, I tried googling Skynet and didn't get any results that made sense in the context of your post. What did you mean?

Great way to monitor WMD production

[corndogg]

I saw a great comic book story awhile ago where american teenagers (sometime in the future) were joining up with their concerned friends from all over the world to remotely fly these micro vehicles to some sort of international hotspot courtesy of the UN.

The teens were controlling the little flyers with thier home computers and were searching for some sort of evidence of WMDs or such.

Perhaps a thousand of these little flyers with video cameras could have helped avoid an Iraq invasion by showing the world that there really wasn't much going on?

Re:Great way to monitor WMD production

[Anonymous Coward]

And maybe while they're in-country, they can film the mass graves, prison torture chambers, and other twisted hell holes which people like you so conveniently ignore.

blame slashdot

[Anonymous Coward]

blame slashdot
next line no spaces
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You're full of shit, buddy

[Anonymous Coward]

"I am an aerospace engineer, and right now if I want to work in the field I love, I need to work for a defense contractor"

Sorry, but if you were really good, you could work for Burt Rutan, or for a Formula 1 team.

I think you're not good, but only mediocre, so you whore yourself out to people who make devices which are used to kill.

Happy next life, because you'll probably come back as a cockroach.

Re:You're full of shit, buddy

[Moofie]

I'll sleep just fine knowing that I at least have the courage to put my name on my principles.