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Bird-Shaped Drone Symbolizes New Forms Of Covert Surveillance To Come (mirror.co.uk)
One security writer in Somali recently discovered a downed metal drone that had been carefully disguised as a bird, a reminder that drones will bring powerful new forms of surveillance. Slashdot reader Stephen Sellner also shares an article by the CEO of one unmanned systems company who's predicting that the commercial drone industry will create more than 100,000 new jobs and generate more than $82 billion for the U.S. economy, and suggesting "security of industrial areas (shipyard, storage facility, etc.) can now be augmented by drones to provide a quick eye in the sky."
But it may be inevitable that drones will be used in a variety of unexpected ways. Airbus is also testing the use of drones for quality inspections on their commercial aircraft. In Iowa, a drone helped lead first-responders to a man suffering from a heart attack. And the U.S. wildlife service is planning to drop peanut-butter pellets onto northeastern Montana to deliver vaccines to prairie dogs -- so that they can then in turn be eaten by Montana's population of endangered black-footed ferrets. Any predictions about drone news we'll be seeing in the future?
But it may be inevitable that drones will be used in a variety of unexpected ways. Airbus is also testing the use of drones for quality inspections on their commercial aircraft. In Iowa, a drone helped lead first-responders to a man suffering from a heart attack. And the U.S. wildlife service is planning to drop peanut-butter pellets onto northeastern Montana to deliver vaccines to prairie dogs -- so that they can then in turn be eaten by Montana's population of endangered black-footed ferrets. Any predictions about drone news we'll be seeing in the future?
These machinations will get better and better, until a roach or mouse sighting will cause alarm on the order of a new level of revulsion.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Too bad 99% of those jobs will be in overseas manufacturing and the vast majority of that $82 billion will be into the bank accounts of the wealthy.
Oh, don't fret little man, the drones will be used on you so you'll not be left out of the loop.
--- Keep the choice with the user..
I was thinking it's a crow about to damage my crops!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
"Even if someone catches the drone" -- well, that seems pretty much like a 100% certainty, for a drone whose stated goal is to crash head-first into something every single time it is used.
Frankly, this sounds like a laughable idea borne in tinfoil hat country. There are much simpler, stealthier ways to kill someone.
No, he meant a religious bird.
"How do you tell if something that appears to be a bird is really a bird or a drone disguised as one?"
For starters, the only bird type that can hover in one spot is the Hummingbird. If you see a large bird hovering perfectly still in one spot, you can bet your ass it's a drone.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
We'll get our hands on these things too. Better for watching the police, my dear. And without putting yourself within firing range. Sounds good to me..
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
(*) This is a 2nd hand rumor from someone you don't know on the internet, take it with a grain of salt.
Pass the salt. Hold the rumor, please.
With the exception of the occasional mad man anything evil that gets done is done for the sake of controlling access to or the use of wealth. People don't generally want to watch random blokes for the fun of it (rule 34 excepted). They're looking to hurt you because you're threatening either their money or their master's money.
Rather than worry about a symptom of wide spread institutional evil ( surveillance ) why not attack root causes ( wealth inequality and the desire of a lucky few to preserve the privileges such a system grants them).
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For starters, the only bird type that can hover in one spot is the Hummingbird. If you see a large bird hovering perfectly still in one spot, you can bet your ass it's a drone.
Well if you bothered to properly disguise your drone as a bird I'm sure you'd have a program to fly in gentle circles like a bird searching for pray to "hover" over an area. Otherwise it'd be kinda obvious.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Sorry, NOTHING beats the cat copter, well maybe the cat copter chasing the bird drone: https://youtu.be/uJfM23iChzs
Presumably, as another comment has noted, if one were trying to disguise their drone as a bird so that it would not be recognized as a drone, one wouldn't employ flight maneuvers that were obviously impossible for the bird it is disguised as in the first place.
One could employ a gentle circling pattern to achieve a hover-like effect, just as some birds actually might do in nature.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Frankly, this sounds like a laughable idea borne in tinfoil hat country. There are much simpler, stealthier ways to kill someone.
What's simpler than pushing a button? Stealthier, yes. You could shoot them with a poison pellet, for example. But this is frankly toy technology, and it's precisely what futurists have feared since the invention of robotics. It costs quite a bit of money to put boots on the ground to kill people, and those people run the risk of detection or capture.
Does this mean it's happening? No. But I would be shocked and amazed if our government wasn't working on small killer drones. It's just too tempting a weapon to ignore.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Why? Hobbyists have been building similar things for ages. Only back then they were called R/C aircraft or model aircraft, not drones.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...