Slashdot Mirror
Micro Plane That Perches On Power Lines
An anonymous reader wrote in to tell us about a microplane that perches on power lines to recharge its batteries being developed as a surveillance device at MIT. As you can imagine, landing on a power line is hard to do ... and charging off transmission lines has its own problems.
I for one welcome our new power line perching overlords!
Is it just me, or is that Pigeon staring at us?
"Pooping on cars is the next hurdle."
"I'd just like to emphasise that taking a million years isn't a metaphor here..." -Rich Bradshaw
So MIT is spending how much money on reinventing the pigeon??
I'm picturing a few pigeons on the line when this microplane perches on it. The pigeons look over at this mechanical oddity with reserved curiosity. Then an artificially-generated voice from the plane states "PAY NO ATTENTION TO ME. I AM A NORMAL PIGEON. I DEFECATE ON CARS AND THE HEADS OF PEOPLE. COO. COO". The pigeons, satisfied with the answer, go about their business.
After they fly off, the plane's voice kicks back in. "HEH HEH HEH. SUCKERS".
Demanding constant attention will only lead to attention.
This brings back memories of when I was a kid. I and my friend had a 'fort' which was coincidentally under one of those "high tension" (what, about 50KV?) power lines.
We had the bright idea that rather than run an extension cord out from his house, we could just shoot an arrow that had a conductor attached to it over the lowest of those power lines, then use a transformer to step it down to the right voltage, and Bob's your uncle; instant television in the old fort.
Fortunately, we were much more interested in the architecture than the elctrical provisioning of said fort and quickly realized how in over our heads we'd be to try something like that.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens.
Something like this?
Man steals electricity with meat hook
(Reuters) - German police are investigating a man for theft after he siphoned electricity off a high-voltage overhead transmission line for one month with the help of an ordinary meat hook, authorities said on Tuesday.
Miniature surveillance aircraft would never need to return to base if they could cling to overhead power lines to recharge their batteries. Now engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are close to perfecting the trick – taking inspiration from birds.
Uh, the birds aren't recharging.
Really.
any advise on cleaning/cooking these new birds for next time I go quail hunting?