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Mini Drone Detects Breathing and Motion
garymortimer writes "The Phoenix 40-A mini-UAV system is capable of performing dual functions as a motion detector as well as probing for breathing of a hiding person in a compound. The mini-UAV can be remotely controlled at long standoff distances from ground or an airborne asset. In addition to the programmed, GPS-guided multi-waypoint visits, the integrated video cameras allow for day and night landing and monitoring of a premises under surveillance for enhanced situational awareness."
that's not scary, or anything....
Data's Life Forms song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWBmaKk32fE
What could possibly go wrong?
The CB App. What's your 20?
I may need to line up a donor like in Minority Report.
Paul Atreides would be able to handle one of these. After a good mouthful of spice, obviously.
so by spoofing its gps and blinding its image sensors, I can send it after the sick little toadie that built this shit?
Seriously, what is wrong with you people? There are real problems that need to be solved before creating a whole host of new ones...
Just what we need. Better killing machines...
Movement yes, but breathing? Does it use a heat signature or something?
Well, at least there might be a civilian use for this critter.
Meanwhile, the sniffer dogs union has protested, and threatened to trot away from the next catastrophe, unless they are guaranteed job security and human legs to hump.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
I remember Robert Sheckley's "Guard-Bird" (1953).
Laudele lor desigur m-ar mahni peste masura.
and Skynet gets closer .......
Woah, I met Fred a few years back. Wasn't expecting to see this on slashdot. UWB imagers are definitely fun toys, but putting one on a drone is a bit of a stretch as they have to be dead still to detect small movement like breathing. Presumably the concept of operation is to land it next to the compound, making sure to point it the right way, then turn on the radar. Then it would beam back the imagery to the operator, who could remain at a distance. Seems like a slightly bizarre thing to want to do, but who knows? It might have a niche.
It detects breathing either by moving target indication from the radar image, or looking for a regular doppler shift (it will see the radar reflection change as the target's chest cavity moves up and down... yes through-wall radars can be sensitive enough to do this under the right conditions).
Sigh. Yet another sales blurb from the defence industry making it to the front page of Slashdot. Really, where is the geek interest here? Or am I meant to channel Sarah Connor and murmur darkly about skynet every time someone comes up with yet another variation on a radio controlled aircraft?
It's just another tool, the question is who will get to use it? I am sure that in societies such as Briton's, where they have wide coverage of CC cameras, and people don't feel their privacy violated enough versus the security gained, these tools will find a place. Just a speculation. Already we have had American law enforcement want the use of Predator drones. There was a case of them wanting it in Florida, but the FAA or something was having problems with it flying around in busy airspace.
On the other hand, as wonderful of a gizmo as this might seem, it's going to fall prey to a technically proficient enemy or criminal at some point. A few things come to mind, one is how do you sneak up on anyone if they are able to detect an RF signal? Falling prey to being jammed at best, cracked at worse, also comes to mind.
Like them or not, drones are here to stay I think, sans the planet becoming saturated in some kind of solar based electromagnetic energy that renders known RF moot. Here is something for the truly paranoid among us to ponder. With the push for even more coverage and faster broadband mobile networking, how long before entire fleets of drones could be made, launched and controlled? I was watching the commercial of the kid with a 4G phone dangling from his RC helicopter and thinking of how this would make a wonderful network to control a drone army from.
Take the Red Pill.
oops. I didn't read the article. Two days after another questionable military assault has started, I could only think of one application.
I apologize to the little toadies, and hope you save many lives with this. Can I control it from my iPhone?
There will always be a desire to kill. Its how humans avoid resolving problems, and the wealthy (Trump - get it :) stay in power.
My mammy always taught me it is impolite to kill somebody you have not been properly introduced to.
If you breathe without a rhythm you won't attract the drone?
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
They're watching all the end-of-humanity movies to make sure they get their killer robots right.
[End Of Line]
TEPCO workers can't see what's going on in those reactor buildings without taking huge personal risk.
If they used something like this to survey they'd know where to aim the fire hoses instead of waiting until there's another plume of smoke from the spent cores they're missing. Just saying.
Now we can kill civilians without having to see them.
FYI, we've been killing several hundred innocent bystanders a year with our drones. (People were delighted that last year was down 25% from the previous year. Unfortunately the total for that previous year was 440, so we "only" killed 330 innocent bystanders in a "good" year.)
Won't be long 'till we've killed as many innocent people with drones as OBL's thugs killed on 9/11.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
"We can name it later!"
mini drone detects breathing and motion, kills puppy.
If there's a technology that can be used for surveillance of its own citizens, the US will throw unlimited resources at it. Cure for cancer? Mission to Mars? Not so much.
sex... I didn't expect we would get blown-up over it.
So we are getting closer to a Knight Rider type technology. Hopefully you can use this tech to rescue people from collapsed buildings too like in Japan right now.
The one thing I'd expect from a story about a "mini drone" is some dimensions.
Last night I was caught having sex with the wife by one of these drones. Now the video is on tubeyou without my permission. To add insult to injury I have been automatically added to facebook.
Standoff asset, UAV, dual function, GPS-guided multi-waypoint... blah blah.
I'm sure it's worth killing a few people just to be able to use the jargon in one's mission report. It's irresistible to some people.
I wonder how many people have died around the world because some technology junkie just had to press the red button.
Green Hornet had these drones in the 1960s, and Speed Racer in the 1970s; both launched the drones from their cars.
They should just ask Commander Data to scan the building for life signs.
But take small, shallow breaths and don't move.
Now you wont even see any chace seen, all you will see is this drone zooming in on a crouched criminal in some dark alley way in splinter cell mode, with night vision enabled, it would be cool for this to actually happen a few times and make the bad guys know they can run, but cant hide....might lower a bit the crime rate, no?
Just what Skynet needed....
For all off you citizens of Namby Pamby land out there...who cares what the civilian purpose of this device is? It has a military purpose--situational awareness--that justifies its existence.