Tiny, Morphing, Electricity-Stealing Spy Planes Developed

tkohler writes "The Air Force Research Lab is developing an Electric Motor-powered Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) that can 'harvest' energy when needed by attaching itself to a power line. It can also temporarily change its shape to look more like innocuous piece of trash hanging from the cable. For domestic spying, maybe it will morph into a pair of sneakers?"

Comments

Re:Technical Capabilities of Citizen vs. Govt Narr

[TheLazySci-FiAuthor]

I should have given examples, you're right.

Let's use the DARPA challenges as an example of technology which is available to the individual and for which no superior technology existed for the govt. The vehicles from these competitions are created by private citizens and the government did not have anything better.

As image recognition technology progresses it will probably be just as advanced for the individual as for the government. This will probably be because it will be created, not in some government lab, but at Google or perhaps Hans' garage in Berlin. Perhaps the govt will have server-farms all using the image recognition tech to mass view images, but the fundamental algorithms (the tech) will be the same.

I guess my point is that the stuff coming out of government labs these days doesn't really strike me as far superior to that which private labs are producing. In other words, the governments advantage has shifted from quality of technology to quantity.

Re:weird warnings..

[Breakfast Pants]

Huh? Why couldn't it just have an insulator on the bottom of it, and land directly on the line?