Drones Get Ready to Fly, Unseen, Into Everyday Life
online.wsj.com
online.wsj.com
> But the real prize may be in civilian applications. "The military stuff is kind of passe," Ms. Cummings said. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist from MIT to tell you if we can do it for a soldier in the field, we can do it for anybody." As a parent of a 3-year-old, she said, she could use the same technology to track her daughter on her way to school (she would need to plant an electronic bug in her lunch box or backpack). That would "bring a whole new meaning to a hover parent," she said. Schools could even use drones for perimeter control.
I don't want my kids to be controlled by drones, I don't want kids to be looked behind on their way to school like animals. If you don't give a bit of freedom to your kids, if you are always on their back, they will never mature and reach adulthood. They will never have the feeling of freedom they need to develop themselves and be great creators, scientists, whatever. They will be sheep controlled by the sheepdog of the moment.
The main fear with this is that those who are going to be protecting other people are very unlikely to see this coming, nor to be especially prepared for it. The secret service (who are not the only ones who do protection, or even the main ones, but no doubt the best) are really good at closing of every attack route that they know of, but even so it is widely known that it is impossible or nearly so to stop an assassin who is willing to give up his own life. With this technology, this may become true of any person who can get an internet connection (until drones become able to navigate autonomously) and is willing to sacrifice a drone -- which is going to be a larger number of people that those who are willing go sacrifice their life.
I sincerely hope I am wrong, because I wouldn't like the kind of society that would have to be created to prevent somebody from doing this, nor the kind of surveillance methods that would be required to prevent somebody from building a drone (if your are going to kill people, you don't care if building a drone is technically illegal).
Why, you think working in security means not reading a newspaper? I rather suspect that the people with the high-stakes jobs hold them because they are actually proactive rather than the sort of people who stand around waiting for something to happen.
But I know that it applies to a large number of people working in the government.
It's weird how the human brain can't tell the difference between totally improbable (me getting assassinated) and extremely likely (my police force, local council or employer spying on me at some point for some imagined infraction).
This sort of irrational alarmism is exactly the cause of being scanned naked at airports.
People don't kill other people very often, apart from in the various shades of wars.
http://nextbigfuture.com/2010/01/micro-uav-assassination-rob...
I could see the paparazzi style flying eyes being dealt with by LIDAR countermeasures. The tracking drones are already vulnerable to a number of the same tactics that involve shaking a tail of any sort. I foresee some exciting new precedents getting set from this conflict though.
If it was a government drone, though, I'd be in a bit more trouble. Now, if private usage of drones for celebrity spying etc... is common before the government starts using them to spy on US citizens, precedent could be established; but if not, well, I bet it'd turn out at best like that kid who posted photos on the internet of the clumsy car-tracking device that the feds stuck on his car, which is to say, the FBI comes and takes it back and maybe doesn't arrest you. I mean, the kid didn't break the thing, and that might make a difference. Government drones are not going to be cheap, and, I mean, someone might forget about a hacked-together $300 drone, but if it's three million? Yeah, secret technology aside, I think they are going to want their toy back.
Especially if they're flying a three million dollar drone over a town that has no fricking jobs to start with. I think people around here would be pretty interested in that disparity. Five bucks says the drones aren't manufactured here, now are they?
I could only wish they ask for their toy back.
If it is a military drone, it's almost certainly manufactured here. The military is very careful about ordering things manufactured in the US, for both political and logistical reasons. (if you do get in to a real war, you don't want to have to ship your ammo and spare parts over from the other side of the world on highly vulnerable cargo ships. And, well, if your war material is made in china, you are going to have a difficult time with your saber rattling. Also, representatives will almost certainly get re-elected if they can bring in a bunch of highly-paid defense jobs to their district. )
Set up a couple of kites with nice long strings, wait for drone to entangle in string, reel it in! Free servos for me.
From the Development License of the SDK Drone API (Article 5 v):
"AR.Drone, shall have for sole purpose to be used by a User for entertaining, game, leisure or training. The creation of applications for the use of the PARROT Drone for military, and, without limitation, security, watching, spying, defence, cartography is strictly forbidden."
"Machine gun shall have for its sole purpose training, sport and 'making a loud, satisfying noise'. Use for military purposes or for turning snitches and rival mafia dons into bloody swiss cheese is strictly forbidden"
If only scheduling innovation was so easy...