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Will Toys-R-Us Carry Spy Drones?
First time accepted submitter TomOfAmalfi writes "People are concerned about government use of domestic surveillance drones, but how is that different than what happens when people make their own drones, or buy them at a toy store? These units don't have the endurance or performance of the 'professional' models, but they can be useful and will get better. I can hear the police now when they realize the protesters are tracking them with toys."
Heli w both video and still camera for ~$99 - didn't note what it's performance range was, though.
Hmm - hover around the apartments on the corner and watch babes!
An AR drone, a smart phone or tablet, a car battery and 500' of cable can be had for less than $1000 and give you a couple hours of continous run time.
You can do it now if you want.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
Yep, Barney, or Barbie Spy Drones. Can't wait.
But seriously, tech can be used for good and bad, and while it can be used by the police, it's apparent that the same tech can be used by people also. I'm sure they will scream and bitch, but will the make it illegal for civilians to use?
Be seeing you...
you can buy them at almost every other electronics store. A google search for Parrot RC drones will give you tons of hits for places where you can buy them.
Couldn't they just have a fleet of RC flying blimps to take their pictures?
It doesnt exatctly beat a Predator drone that can shoot real bullets and missiles at you.
Hot Wheels now makes a toy car that you can drive around and record video. It's only a matter of time before they (or another company) expands into video remote controlled planes. I'd love to fly an RC plane around a local park with my kids and then offload the video to show them what it looked like from the plane's point of view.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
If you filmed a policeman raping a women with your cellphone, they would arrest you.
http://www.pixiq.com/article/maryland-police-once-again-use-wiretapping-laws-to-crack-down-on-videographers
You are completely incoherent, you know that?
...when they start using it in toys.
Night vision goggles, wireless surveillance cameras, and now spy drones, all available at your local toy store.
As long as the drones are as large as this, you can still be suspicious why that toy helicopter is hovering in front of your window all the time, and close the curtains. Things get interesting if they ever get small enough to remain essentially unnoticed. Especially if you can steer them through an open window in the third floor into a room at a time when no one is in there (it flying in may be noticed even if it is very small, e.g. due to the noise it makes), and then just have it sitting somewhere where no one notices to spy on you.
In that case, I guess fly screens will get much more popular. :-)
The difference between civilians having spy drones and law enforcement having spy drones is that law enforcement has the right to enforce the law, with physical force, and not be punished (unless obviously excessive). Civilians, on the other hand, are "vigilantes."
Only a terrorist would spy on police with a toy UAV. And thanks to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, any such terrorist can be detained by the military indefinitely and without trial, even if a US citizen arrested on US soil. That should teach them, right?
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/11/17/warsaw-protester-launches-drone-to-spy-on-police/
If you read his post above, he's also trying to film his family members in the shower. It's possible he has some mental issues...
a nice little wireless helicopter with a camera on it, i would buzz my neighborhood, what a great way to keep an eye out for crime, (i bet neighborhood watch programs would love those things)
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
DIY drones I have seen video from there of sub $1000 UAVs that will follow a GPS controlled flight path, stop at waypoints and take video towards the desired direction. What else do you want?
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
. . . indoor only . . . playback via USB on a compter . . .
. . . or how about this one . . . http://www.pearl.de/a-NC1871-5955.shtml
. . . or disguised at a pen in you shirt pocket (very nerdy) . . . http://www.pearl.de/search.jsp?query_type=1&wtype=1&query=kugelschreiber+kamera&newff.x=10&newff.y=4
. . . and they have plenty of other cameras for businesses wanting to catch employee thieves . . .
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Some?
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
I also heard they were going to outsource production to Iran. It seems they recently developed some really advanced spy drone tech.
I have always mused about how a grass-roots citizen intelligence agency that monitors the government and it's agents might be realized. It's not a matter of turn-about being fair play, but one of the notion of checks and balances. The US system of government only functions properly to the degree that it's transparent and accountable. There's lots of practical issues, not the least of which is that closely monitoring the government or blowing the whistle can often be illegal under current law. Nonetheless, Anonymous already exists as a Citizen's Intelligence Agency of sorts, and I think that's a trend that will continue.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Custodiret eos,
I'm not familiar with the laws surrounding the flying of model aircraft, but I suspect there will be some threshold when these 'toys' are prevalent and powerful (ie. potentially destructive) enough that the FAA will start heavily regulating them, possibly requiring licensing of both aircraft and operator.
It records to an SD card, not useful for spying.
Fore some of us, the original thought put an idea in our heads....
"People are concerned about government use of domestic surveillance drones, but how is that different than what happens when people make their own drones, or buy them at a toy store? These units don't have the endurance or performance of the 'professional' models, but they can be useful and will get better. I can hear the police now when they realize the protesters are tracking them with toys."
Better yet - if they can watch us, then who's going to stop us from watching them? A lot of truth could come out because of this!
www.osbots.com sells cellphone based robots for $150 and up. They basically use the phone as the camera and radio and, since it's a cellphone, it has virtually unlimited range if you can get a signal. These have gone out for groceries on the sidewalk, even.
Sousveillance ftw!
People are concerned about government use of domestic surveillance drones, but how is that different than what happens when people make their own drones, or buy them at a toy store?
I can't tell if your question is rhetorical or not, because it doesn't work as a rhetorical (the simple, obvious answer is false). So here goes the straight-man answer:
1. Private citizens are not (generally) using taxpayer money to do so.
2. Private citizens do not (generally) have the authority to incarcerate other people.
3. Private citizens are supposed to monitor civil servants even when there is no reasonable suspicion or probable cause.
4. Private citizens are not (generally) supposed to engage in surveillance of other private citizens under any conditions.
5. Civil servants are not supposed to engage in surveillance of private citizens without reasonable suspicion or probable cause.
6. Civil servants are not supposed to buy or build things unless it is the public will that they do so (this can be an implicit will interpreted by civil leaders such as chiefs of police).
7. Private citizens are not supposed to be inhibited in buying or building things unless the thing in question has been specifically regulated through the legislative process or other due deliberative process authorized by the people.
Hope that helps.
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
Or mebbe its jest that his sister is HOT!!!!!OMG!!!!
So Quadrocopter already offers ready to fly (RTF) kits for a few grand to a max of about $10K. Granted, more than Toys-R-Us, but affordable to the serious DIY spy. Roll your own GPS waypoint flight system and you've got full autonomy in platform capable of high-rez photo or high-def video collection. If you can live with a light-weight camera, you can add battery to the heavy lift platforms and get significant flight times (greater than 60min).
Fry's Electronics in Phoenix this morning had a camera mounted on a helicopter buzzing through the store. The big flat-screen next to the 'ad' board was quite discombobulating to watch...
Imagination drew in bold strokes, instantly serving hopes and fears, while knowledge advanced by slow increments...
What we should be asking is why don't they carry armed Nerf-Predator drones, or Airsoft mini-Apache choppers?
I'd even accept laser tag drones with the controls automatically forcing a landing on a successful hit.
Since such actions may affect national security, we better redefine controlled airspace as anything "50 or more feet above the average natural or man-made object height within in any 250' radius from the device in question." By doing this we can eliminate: uncontrolled private aircraft (ie; Cessna fuel bombs), terrorist-centered high-powered rocketry (why would any 'normal' citizen need to launch any device over 250' in the air), surveillance drones (including all forms of remote-controlled aircraft, again, why would any 'normal' citizen need to pilot a 1/24th scale flying model for ANY reason, other than terrorism training), parachuting, etc..
Of course, there will be law enforcement exceptions.
Toil is Stupid. Don't be Stupid.
This happened in Russia already. There was something of a flap over a small UAV observing pro-democracy protests in Moscow. But it wasn't the Government doing it. It was a group of bloggers with a model helicopter, and here are the pictures it took.
The Parrot AR.Drone:
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11787331
However, calling these things spy cams is sensationalizing and fearmongering. This is a non-story.
I'm surprised no-one has posted this yet. I think I saw it linked on /. last time there was a drone story and the poster referred to these guys as "The rock stars of aerial video".
http://team-blacksheep.com/videos
Apparently you haven't been paying attention, local and state governments are already using drones, and the military gleefully loans them out domestically to law enfarcement. Nothing on your list is new, that's all been happening since the days of your great-great-great-great grandpappy and creation of a police state was never necessary prior to today.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
There were some people where I work toying around with the idea of putting those pen-cams on sharks to find out what they are doing out at the 'white shark cafe'. Toys and science, the best of bedfellows.
horror vacui
Hmm... "The Dervish House," by Ian McDonald, published July 2010. Civilian air surveillance of police hits the national news, July 2012?? Is a book science fiction if it only predicts a couple of years ahead?
In that case, wouldn't you rather use use laser pointers?
Oh I'm sorry Mr LEO, you thought the panopticon was your exclusive property?
Nope, sorry, if the the surveillance state exists, it's going to go both ways.
Actually, Mr LEO considering your behavior and well documented reluctance to keep your own people on the right side of the law, we will probably have to take it away from you and use it just to keep you in line.
Toy helicoptors with camera and various remote capabilities. ;)
I'm tempted
And it needs to happen post-haste. The US govt, with its passage of the NDAA (the military can arbitrarily arrest you and put your ass in GitMo) and other recent atrocities, is wildly out of control. D.C. and the 1% know their comeuppance is due, and they will slaughter any untold number of us to forestall that.
The American people need to take their country in hand again, no matter what it takes. Intel is the first step.
God Bless America, and keep her safe from all enemies, foreign and domestic.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
I know of no hobbyist equipment that both sees people on the other side of a wall, and pulls audio through a wall...
when you make a point with gross exaggeration, you damage the weight your argument holds...
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
I have a toy, called a sling-shot, that will render your flying spy drone toy useless long before its batteries run out. My toy has centuries of R&D ahead of your flying robotic spy drone.
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
ever heard of flying kites? moron
insensitive clod overlords obligatory xkcd car analogy russian reversals whoosh pedant fanbois ftfy in 3...2...1..PROFIT
I have often wondered why the paparazzi don't use this for celeb weddings and such, I would also add that these "consumer drones" are easy to take out, simply flood the area with the same frequency the drone operates on and it crashes.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2007/05/toy_planes_real/
"Could remote-controlled planes — kids’ toys — be used by terrorists to carry out an attack? It’s more likely than you think..."
http://www.armscontrol.ru/uav/clips.htm
"According to Debka.com, in December 2002, Palestinian toy importers in Jerusalem and Ramallah were told to order hundreds of model airplanes for distribution to Palestinian children in hospitals. Subsidies from European Union member-governments could legitimately be allocated to this humanitarian purpose. The model airplanes were purchased in Europe and shipped openly to Palestinian shopkeepers. The model planes were sent to Palestinian workshops for conversion into miniature air bombers with explosive payloads. Tanzim militiamen from Arafat's Fatah, sent out to open areas near Jericho to test the new weapons, discovered they could fly to a distance of 1 kilometer and an altitude of 300 meters. The only problem was how to guide the plane to a target inside a built-up Israeli area where it would no longer be visible to the remote control holder. A small adjustment was made in the engine enabling the operator to cut it out from a distance, so that it dropped to the ground and blew up. Contrary to reports that Arafat had withdrawn from the day-to-day management of Palestinian terrorist operations, DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources emphasize that the results of the model plane conversion tests were brought before him. Delighted with its performance, he ordered the new weapon to be used in the coming days in Jerusalem. He chose Jerusalem, calculating that it would be some time before Israeli security and intelligence authorities caught on to and learned how to intercept the new miniweapon whizzing around the city before it blew up. The deadly toy is easily launched from Arab Jerusalem. Its flying time is estimated at no more than 2-3 minutes."
ever heard of flying kites? moron
That would also need to be banned, under the same set of rules. Kites are a security threat and must be stopped.
And while we're at calling people names, I'll add:
hot air balloons
blimps/lighter-than-air ships
paper airplanes
ski flying/jumping (and all other winter 'off the ground' sports)
skeet shooting (if the clay pigeons go higher than 50' above the nearest obstacle)
motocross
extreme pogo-sticking
trolling
Toil is Stupid. Don't be Stupid.
...and creation of a police state was never necessary prior to today.
Since when was this ever necessary?
Lots of people have already been charged with " interfering with a law enforcement officer" for video taping police from a distance. I say what is good for the goose is good for the gander but the cops don't like to be watched as that somehow makes their jobs more difficult? Something to hide me thinks.
Film them all "doing their jobs" and post it on line first. Once out in the public they can't deny or destroy the evidence.
There are two issues that remain unsolved before the drones are good enough for this to become a real game changer (for good and bad):
1. the stationary drones are too noisy since they're choppers.
2. the battery life is horrendous. usually around 10-15 min mark when what is needed is several hours.
Get one of the little jobbies and put a Hero cam on it
You want me to put a Hero cam on *what*??!!
Only guns are mounted on ships and vessels.
CitizenSHIP is about a Seal driver moving property that is regulated by an administrative body for sake of competition or assurance of limiting one's conduct to retain civil standing if otherwise incapacitance is under guide of said privy of a near lord.
It is not good to be a civillian around a militant force, because the law of gravity doesn't need artificial enforcement yet the law of nature assumes a fiction into your persona to be regulated an an unoriginal domain. Military is a competitor asserting itself to assure it's survival or retention of another's interests. If you aren't benefitting from it, then don't confuse civilian with DOMESTICATION.
This country was founded on Alchohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and someone else's decision long ago no-matter how will not LAWFULLY effect over me because this is my life not anyone else's.
It is already a violation of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to manufacture or make available for sale any aerial vehicle with any surveillance capability of any kind.
It is also a violation of the HSA of 2002 to use or possess an unsecured wireless access point that is connected to the internet and can give random people access to it.
Both are punishable with federal prison time, probably in gitmo.