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General => DnD Central => Topic started by: string on 2014-01-31, 19:49:44

Title: Drone Technology
Post by: string on 2014-01-31, 19:49:44
There was a new agreement reached today between the UK and France to jointly develop Drone Technology, one aim being to replace Fighter Aircraft with Drones. See here - Cameron and Hollande finalise plans for Anglo-French drone (http://www.politics.co.uk/news/2014/01/31/cameron-and-hollande-finalise-plans-for-anglo-french-drone)

As an anything-that-flies enthusiast from way back I'm technically interested in the drones and in seeing how they develop and what technology they use. So it will be fascinating to see how that pans out. Fat chance that the discussion will stick to that, but I've put it in the title, so there.

The article, however, is thought-provoking at different levels, the political, the moral as well as the technological.

There is an interesting turn of phrase at the bottom of that article, namely,
A recent report by the Ministry of Defence said multiculturalism was a significant factor in the public opposition to conflict, as a war-weary public becomes increasingly uncomfortable with seeing British troops deployed to countries from which they once came. --- Lots of issues there.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Frenzie on 2014-01-31, 19:54:59
There is an interesting turn of phrase at the bottom of that article, namely,
A recent report by the Ministry of Defence said multiculturalism was a significant factor in the public opposition to conflict, as a war-weary public becomes increasingly uncomfortable with seeing British troops deployed to countries from which they once came. --- Lots of issues there.

That problem has been solved by armies at least since Roman times, and probably long prior. The Romans enlisted Franks to serve in the south and east. During WW2 the Germans gave e.g. captured Georgians the option to stay in prison camps or to serve under German command in the west. The British, too, are hardly foreign to such tactics.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: SmileyFaze on 2014-02-02, 09:33:20
Back on topic.................

One of the biggest hurdles to overcome is simply keeping your drone.   (https://www.smileyfaze.tk/thumbs/Flyboy09.gif)

Keeping it from being lifted out of your control, & potentially used against you, which if it were mine would piss me off to no end!

Oh, & some fool hearty Australians are planning to deliver books (http://www.dezeen.com/2013/10/16/flying-drones-to-deliver-text-books/)& what-not with drones.

In urban areas of all places   ----  living proof that alcohol does cause brain rot!!!!   (https://www.smileyfaze.tk/slides/koolaid.gif)

Who needs a stinkin' 747 when you can use a fleet of drones!??  (https://www.smileyfaze.tk/slides/muslim008.gif)

Bin Laden must be laughin'  from the bowels of hell!

                              (https://dndsanctuary.eu/imagecache.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2Fs0r7uoy.jpg&hash=f6a6f78bad467c2fb5673bf8bb969e51" rel="cached" data-hash="f6a6f78bad467c2fb5673bf8bb969e51" data-warn="External image, click here to view original" data-url="http://i.imgur.com/s0r7uoy.jpg) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9MPQCPbsqE) Click on the drone to see the video
                                                                                  (https://www.smileyfaze.tk/slides/hitqt9.gif)

                              (https://dndsanctuary.eu/imagecache.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FT82oqmR.gif&hash=c4af1884c8324d3e6cc95ddb7f9e2a4e" rel="cached" data-hash="c4af1884c8324d3e6cc95ddb7f9e2a4e" data-warn="External image, click here to view original" data-url="http://i.imgur.com/T82oqmR.gif)      (https://www.smileyfaze.tk/slides/dopedoinlines01.gif)




Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: string on 2014-02-02, 14:14:14
It makes one shudder - imagine al queda taking over a drone and showering us with Korans!

But seriously, that's indeed a risk; not one that is absent from manned machines though (communications/flight control/weapons systems, cruise missiles (not manned I know but each with their own self-destruct command one would have thought).
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Jimbro3738 on 2014-02-02, 15:43:05
One of the biggest hurdles to overcome is simply keeping your drone.

DnD has plenty of drones...which on did you have in mind?

Just to keep things straight...
drone 1  (drōn)
n.
1. A male bee, especially a honeybee, that is characteristically stingless, performs no work, and produces no honey. Its only function is to mate with the queen bee.
2. An idle person who lives off others; a loafer.
3. A person who does tedious or menial work; a drudge: "undervalued drones who labored in obscurity" (Caroline Bates).
4. A pilotless aircraft operated by remote control.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: SmileyFaze on 2014-02-02, 20:55:19
(https://www.smileyfaze.tk/slides/HeDidIt.gif)
Just to keep things straight...
drone 1  (drōn)
n.
1. A male bee, especially a honeybee, that is characteristically stingless, performs no work, and produces no honey. Its only function is to mate with the queen bee.
2. An idle person who lives off others; a loafer.
3. A person who does tedious or menial work; a drudge: "undervalued drones who labored in obscurity" (Caroline Bates).
4. A pilotless aircraft operated by remote control.


Awww....'Coony won't appreciate that none too much thar James.....(https://www.smileyfaze.tk/slides/nono.gif)
....No, I dare say, not one teensy weensy lil bit. (https://www.smileyfaze.tk/slides/firefart.gif)  (https://www.smileyfaze.tk/slides/chuckle002.gif)


Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: string on 2014-02-09, 17:17:28
Never get stuck in traffic again: Renault reveals concept car which comes with a DRONE that watches out for gridlock (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2553422/Release-drone-Renault-reveals-concept-car-traffic-spotting-quadcopter-built-roof.html).

It's a great idea. The only down side is that one needs a pilot, navigator and rear gunner (American version only) in the back seat.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: krake on 2014-02-09, 21:46:31
Probably the first stoned drone in the history of mankind

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUFqt_Ks0LU[/video]
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: SmileyFaze on 2014-02-10, 00:08:24
Hope it has a time delayed fuze! (https://www.smileyfaze.tk/slides/firefart.gif)
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: krake on 2014-02-10, 12:03:15
Drones and cell phones, a letal combination for some

Drone strikes kill innocents by targeting NSA phone data, not people (http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/10/5396920/drone-strikes-have-killed-innocents-with-nsa-data)
Quote
It’s really like we’re targeting a cell phone. We’re not going after people — we’re going after their phones, in the hopes that the person on the other end of that missile is the bad guy.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Jimbro3738 on 2014-02-10, 14:58:23
fish

[video]http://www.weather.com/video/watch-man-gets-buried-by-snowplow-44269?collid=/weather/twc-weather (http://www.weather.com/video/watch-man-gets-buried-by-snowplow-44269?collid=/weather/twc-weather)[/video]
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Belfrager on 2014-02-20, 21:42:04
In not too much time, drones will be inside you all.
That's what happens when people don't react against nanotechnology. First they have drones outside them , then inside them.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: mjmsprt40 on 2014-02-21, 12:40:22
I think we need to define it a bit further. Jim's 4th point (pilotless remote-controlled aircraft) could refer to any aircraft bought at the hobby shop. So, let's make it a little more strict: A drone (aircraft) contains either a camera or a weapon. Camera drones may be either civilian or military, weapon-carrying drones are military.

That way, we all understand that the guys flying models of P-51s and Sopwith Camels are not flying drones, the guy flying a camera-equipped Opticopter is flying a drone.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Jimbro3738 on 2014-02-21, 13:03:32
Never get stuck in traffic again: Renault reveals concept car which comes with a DRONE that watches out for gridlock.

It's a great idea. The only down side is that one needs a pilot, navigator and rear gunner (American version only) in the back seat.

You'll like us better when Putin's landing craft come ashore in Wessex.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Jimbro3738 on 2014-02-21, 13:13:40
That way, we all understand that the guys flying models of P-51s and Sopwith Camels are not flying drones, the guy flying a camera-equipped Opticopter is flying a drone.
Oh, if only Snoopy could save us from ourselves the same way he saved us from the Red Baron!
(https://dndsanctuary.eu/imagecache.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fimg77.exs.cx%2Fimg77%2F7859%2FSnoopyRBSmall.jpg&hash=dd46a06ee42ff773fb25492e71a5c4b5" rel="cached" data-hash="dd46a06ee42ff773fb25492e71a5c4b5" data-warn="External image, click here to view original" data-url="http://img77.exs.cx/img77/7859/SnoopyRBSmall.jpg)
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: SmileyFaze on 2014-02-22, 00:47:34
Proposed law to prevent DRONES from collecting using any information it collects, primarily because it circumvents 'due process' protections guaranteed in the 4th Amendment of the United States Constitution (part of the Bill of Rights).

Ignore the image (if it offends you), & please watch this important video.

It's relative information to your personal privacy on many levels. it's not only about drones.

[VIDEO]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSp-bhakCFs[/VIDEO]


I wonder how the Britts will be dealing with these in their LONDON backyards spying on them?

[VIDEO]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gQSkppYviw[/VIDEO]
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: SmileyFaze on 2014-03-01, 03:03:14
I'm amazed,,,,,,,,,, but should I be???

Amazed because in EIGHT ( 8 ) days, nobody -- not anybody seems to care one way or another whether drones will, or should be for that matter, used in order to circumvent our supposed Right to Privacy.

Am I alone in my amazement, or should I just say like a laid back Australian might say.....
"...She'll be right mate...she'll be right..." ??

What do   you   think?



Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: string on 2014-03-01, 07:22:46
If drones we'd used for that purpose (snooping on ordinary people) I would be very much against it, but I don't see them being used that way. Of course any new technology can be misused, by authorities, by criminals etc.

There are so many benefits to be gained from the use of drones, both militarily and for civilian use. People get lost in the wilderness or at sea where the vastly increased dwell time of drones can help in locating the missing person. Farmers can oversee their crops or livestock more efficiently . . .  I could go on, but I'm sure everyone can think of such examples.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Banned Member on 2014-03-01, 08:25:03
Drone technology is no more than technology.
Is technology bad or good? Should human have invented such or such? E.g., guns?:)
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: string on 2014-03-01, 11:14:48
But if you're really worried SF, push for law that stops their use for snooping if you don't think there is one already.

Maybe there isn't an existing law  -  think satellites or google maps.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Jimbro3738 on 2014-03-01, 13:04:26

If drones we'd used for that purpose (snooping on ordinary people) I would be very much against it, but I don't see them being used that way. Of course any new technology can be misused, by authorities, by criminals etc.

There are so many benefits to be gained from the use of drones, both militarily and for civilian use. People get lost in the wilderness or at sea where the vastly increased dwell time of drones can help in locating the missing person. Farmers can oversee their crops or livestock more efficiently . . .  I could go on, but I'm sure everyone can think of such examples.

This is the US of A, Sir...we kill our own.
Quote
WASHINGTON — He is known as Abdullah al-Shami, an Arabic name meaning Abdullah the Syrian. But his nom de guerre masks a reality: He was born in the United States, and the United States is now deciding whether to kill him.

Mr. Shami, a militant who American officials say is living in the barren mountains of northwestern Pakistan, is at the center of a debate inside the government over whether President Obama should once again take the extraordinary step of authorizing the killing of an American citizen overseas.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/28/world/asia/us-militant-hidden-spurs-drone-debate.html?_r=0 (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/28/world/asia/us-militant-hidden-spurs-drone-debate.html?_r=0)
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Banned Member on 2014-03-01, 13:13:39
Does American law allow for hearings in absentia?
Then why not drop him a writ first?
From a drone?..
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Jimbro3738 on 2014-03-01, 13:20:07
Worse yet, trials are allowed in absentia.
Quote
Trials in absentia are exceedingly rare—most judges and attorneys will never be involved with one. The procedure doesn't jibe with the notion of due process, especially the constitutional right of the accused to confront witnesses. So, judges are careful to make sure that a defendant's absence is truly voluntary, rather than the result of foul play, ill health, or lack of notice, lest they create grounds for an appeal.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2003/06/when_can_a_defendant_be_tried_in_absentia.html (http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2003/06/when_can_a_defendant_be_tried_in_absentia.html)
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Banned Member on 2014-03-01, 13:24:18
Then the writ should be printed in an amount for dropping an oversized writ-bomb to the place - so as the summoned could not avoid having it at hand.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: string on 2014-03-24, 09:47:59
Now drones are being used to expose bank details and passwords: Hackers manage to access 150 phones an hour through Wi-Fi (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2586006/Now-drones-used-expose-bank-details-passwords-Hackers-manage-access-150-phones-hour-Wi-FI.html#ixzz2wsKMn6ZQ)
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Jimbro3738 on 2014-03-24, 10:49:03
It's worse than you think Asylum Seeker...Tracking a cellphone is easy, especially for the National Security Agency. But can you track a cellphone that's been turned off?

It sounds impossible, but the NSA apparently has been able to track powered-down mobile phones since 2004, as reported by The Washington Post in July 2013.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-growth-fueled-by-need-to-target-terrorists/2013/07/21/24c93cf4-f0b1-11e2-bed3-b9b6fe264871_story_2.html (http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-growth-fueled-by-need-to-target-terrorists/2013/07/21/24c93cf4-f0b1-11e2-bed3-b9b6fe264871_story_2.html)
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: SmileyFaze on 2014-03-24, 18:48:01
It sounds impossible, but the NSA apparently has been able to track powered-down mobile phones since 2004, as reported by The Washington Post in July 2013.


I became aware of this technology at a security seminar I attended in California about 2-3 years ago. This is nothing new.(https://www.smileyfaze.tk/slides/nea.gif)
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Colonel Rebel on 2014-03-24, 23:50:22

It's worse than you think Asylum Seeker...Tracking a cellphone is easy, especially for the National Security Agency. But can you track a cellphone that's been turned off?

It sounds impossible, but the NSA apparently has been able to track powered-down mobile phones since 2004, as reported by The Washington Post in July 2013.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-growth-fueled-by-need-to-target-terrorists/2013/07/21/24c93cf4-f0b1-11e2-bed3-b9b6fe264871_story_2.html (http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-growth-fueled-by-need-to-target-terrorists/2013/07/21/24c93cf4-f0b1-11e2-bed3-b9b6fe264871_story_2.html)

There goes your blow bidness.  :right:
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Jimbro3738 on 2014-03-25, 07:17:19

There goes your blow bidness.  :right:

:sing: There's no bidness like blow bidness! Like no bidness I know...  :sing:
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: ersi on 2014-03-26, 09:07:05
Drones not legal for hunting any more

Quote
Hunting big game in Alaska with the help of remote-controlled, camera-equipped aircraft will be illegal later this year when new regulations take effect.

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2014/03/23/3389846/drone-assisted-hunting-to-be-illegal.html?sp=/99/188/#storylink=cpy
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Banned Member on 2014-03-26, 09:13:11
That's right! :up:
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: string on 2014-07-03, 13:35:21
An extra-terrestrial Drone - Dropship offers safe landings for Mars rovers (http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Technology/Dropship_offers_safe_landings_for_Mars_rovers).

Mind you - how we get the operator on site first is more of a problem.   ;)
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: mjmsprt40 on 2014-07-03, 14:12:50

An extra-terrestrial Drone - Dropship offers safe landings for Mars rovers (http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Technology/Dropship_offers_safe_landings_for_Mars_rovers).

Mind you - how we get the operator on site first is more of a problem.   ;)


That might not be that much of a problem. The rovers are, technically anyway, robot drones to begin with. So now you have a drone making sure a drone is safely delivered--.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: rjhowie on 2014-07-03, 22:32:50
And there is another total waste of money wanting to go to Mars for goodness sake. We have been conditioned into thinking this is a great step forward - yeah, right.  Hardly the most hospitable place to say, boring and in the main meaning of the word, lifeless unlike Earth. When you also consider the tens of millions of the poor in the corner that wants to desperately get there it makes you wonder about how brains are used.

Drones of course can have a useful purpose apart from police spying on your privacy and illegally bombing countries and ignoring their complaints. Some are even  talking about using them for delivering goods to homes, etc. Just a pity the idea is being misused on a great scale.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: mjmsprt40 on 2014-07-04, 17:37:03
The operator for the Martian drones may already be on site. Further, in an apparent attempt to appease RJH, the operator appears to be Scottish. Well, sort of, anyway.

(https://dndsanctuary.eu/imagecache.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dunaber.com%2Fwp-content%2Ffiles%2F2012%2F09%2Fmarching-martian-piper.jpg&hash=1125fbe02b0e0019d2b920229c37c689" rel="cached" data-hash="1125fbe02b0e0019d2b920229c37c689" data-warn="External image, click here to view original" data-url="http://www.dunaber.com/wp-content/files/2012/09/marching-martian-piper.jpg)
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: string on 2014-07-04, 18:37:11
You really are a miserable o*d f**t sometimes rjh  :) Try to imagine someone building a steam locomotive on Mars - that should get you dribbling! (never mind the science on that one!).

Let your mind stray beyond weapons. Take in the drone possibilities for crop spraying, search and rescue, cattle husbandry, forest fire monitoring, police track and trace, and rounding up hordes of Scottish rioting model railway fans.

A Mars mission is not my favourite mission either but this example of Drone technology is interesting for its own sake at a number of levels, not only the context of it. For example as mjm points out we see there a symbiotic relationship between two drones, a feature we will see more of in the future.

Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: rjhowie on 2014-07-04, 22:04:21
Mybe in your great hurry to waffle nicknames at me string you might READ the whole entry i gave dopey man. Didn't i say there were peaceful purposes in your tut, tut, emotion rave?! Mars is a dash waste of time and money and no doubt all the sci-fi dreamboats think it is wonderful. Pointless exercise that will have little or no use. Far better spending the money on the home poor or helpt the debt trillions. Mrs will not put clothes on the back, ;provide meals, jobs and is such a nonsense. Meantime instead of calling me what you did take yor time, read and then nod.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: mjmsprt40 on 2014-07-04, 22:19:54

Mybe in your great hurry to waffle nicknames at me string you might READ the whole entry i gave dopey man. Didn't i say there were peaceful purposes in your tut, tut, emotion rave?! Mars is a dash waste of time and money and no doubt all the sci-fi dreamboats think it is wonderful. Pointless exercise that will have little or no use. Far better spending the money on the home poor or helpt the debt trillions. Mrs will not put clothes on the back, ;provide meals, jobs and is such a nonsense. Meantime instead of calling me what you did take yor time, read and then nod.


So-- where were all these wonderful social programs that fed and housed everybody BEFORE the space programs? How come I never read about these programs in any history book? Why were so many homeless hungry and enslaved before the first rocket was ever invented? With all that money before the space programs, there shouldn't have been a single hungry or homeless person anywhere. So-- what happened?
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: rjhowie on 2014-07-07, 01:40:10
Well the ignoring of the lesser people even though in their vast numbers is typical of the corporate mindset who don't actually give a damn. That so much is pent on pointless Mars and such only draws more attention to the lack of humanity for all the guff the real rich controllers exercise.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: mjmsprt40 on 2014-07-07, 20:22:09
You haven't answered my question. Why did we have so many hungry, homeless, and so on before the first rocket? With so much money that wasn't being sent into space, why all the suffering? Could it be that the various space programs aren't at fault for this, and if we didn't have them we might still have an abundance of hungry, homeless, jobless and so on?

Sometimes exploration has results that no one can know for generations-- maybe centuries. I live on this continent-- maybe I live at all-- because some guy got the idea that by sailing West, he would eventually reach India and all the riches of the Orient. Who could have known that he would bump into this place, or that the natives he came across would be sitting on wealth that he couldn't imagine? He spent a bunch of Ferdinand and Isabella's money on a questionable venture when there were certainly thousands starving in Spain, eh?

Right now, Mars is a barren rockpile, nobody lives there or indeed can live there unless you bring substantial parts of Earth with you. Given present technology, anybody who goes there is on a one-way ride-- there's no coming back. So we send drones to investigate the place to see if there's a reason, someday, to send men to colonize the place. It may turn out to be an expensive waste of money-- or it may turn out to be the smartest thing we've ever done. Right now, you can't honestly say which it is.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: rjhowie on 2014-07-07, 20:29:30
The money was very obviously available before the space nonsense and doesn't take much to work that one out does ot? If it wasn't there would not be any space programme so it illustrates my point which you missed. And of course we know following the old adage that the poor are of course always with us but instead of dishing out money on would-be Star Trekker stuff it could have been put to better use espeically in your country which has no Welfare state as we have. Tut, tut.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: mjmsprt40 on 2014-07-07, 21:30:20
I didn't miss your point-- assuming you made one to miss-- but you sure missed any point I made.

Before the space programs, the money wasn't being spent the way you'd like it to be spent. I think I could guarantee that if there had never been a space program, the money still wouldn't be spent the way you'd like the money to be spent. The space program isn't the problem.

In any case-- back to the thread-- drones here on Earth can be a problem. Military drones, and police drones, and your nosy neighbor sending his camera-equipped Octocopter over to your place to see what you're doing when you think no one is looking--- that could be a problem. I imagine that last one might even make you, RJ, ask Smiley if you can borrow one of his guns so you can shoot the pesky thing down.

Oh, man, this I'd have to see: RJHowie using one of Smileyfaze's guns to shoot down a drone 'copter.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: rjhowie on 2014-07-08, 20:16:40
Regarding your last line. That wouldn't occur as I wasn't born with an American brain (thank Heaven's) You lot keep gunning thousands of each other to death as you are least keeping one business in top shape - undertakers.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: mjmsprt40 on 2014-07-09, 01:37:33
So--- you don't mind if your nosy neighbor flies his camera-equipped Octocopter outside your bedroom window? You really wouldn't want to shoot the thing down if you had the opportunity? I guess living in one of the heaviest surveillance states, where cameras seem to be mounted everywhere, makes you so "used to it" that you don't notice when it's really out of control.

We're catching up with the surveillance though. The Rahmfather can hardly wait to put more speed cameras up, along with the stop-light cameras that were already in place. I don't go to the Rahmulan Empire unless I absolutely have to for that reason, amongst others.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: ensbb3 on 2014-07-09, 03:53:58
Traffic enforcement cameras had a short life here. Too many judges ruled against them as evidence, to the point they've been removed. So far rulings have went in favor of drones tho. Shooting one down would prolly land you in a heap of trouble... Assuming it was only doing its job.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Sparta on 2014-07-09, 04:57:17
it seems like  , when  insanity surpass the science .

everything is in chaos 

(https://dndsanctuary.eu/imagecache.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi60.tinypic.com%2F2gvv7te.jpg&hash=b632b074340b898f8bb0ef6db9606aad" rel="cached" data-hash="b632b074340b898f8bb0ef6db9606aad" data-warn="External image, click here to view original" data-url="http://i60.tinypic.com/2gvv7te.jpg)

Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: mjmsprt40 on 2014-07-11, 11:18:04
I heard something on the radio yesterday that farmers are using drones.

Farmers are discovering that drones can help them, giving them the ability to view their acreage much faster than they can by walking through the fields, and they can spot-- and prevent-- potential problems in the crops much faster with the drones. I think-- am not sure-- that limited crop dusting by drone may be possible too, saving the farmer the problems of having to wait for the professional crop duster and having the dust sprayed over the entire field when he just needs to hit a trouble-spot before the problems spread.

See link below:

http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/526491/agricultural-drones/
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: ensbb3 on 2014-07-11, 17:11:22
Yeah, I've heard about farmers using them to patrol. I haven't heard the crop dusting part yet.

The main one to get headlines here are contractors for roofing companies using them to assess potential customers. Because they are flying over private property, looking to pitch a sale to people, some have complained. I imagine they will have to become more common in that capacity before anything is done to regulate the activity. I expect drones are gonna be used by municipalities before too long as well. Anymore all they have to do is drive by your house to read your meters, so before long the logic that one truck can cover more ground by dispatching a couple drones on predetermined flight paths to do a flyby will take hold. Other uses could be tax assessment and patrolling public parks. The logic in using them both in public and private situations for surveying and surveillance is only gonna grow. I do feel it's important that regulations grow along with them. People do have a right to privacy, but when you live in a subdivision or apartment complex you've already accepted less privacy than rural homes have. So getting bent outta shape over a flyby is extreme.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Belfrager on 2014-07-11, 19:57:57
Saying that drones can be of utility to people it's the first step to use drones against people.
Open your eyes people.

What more will be needed until people understand that they are the enemy for drone's owners. Drones will be used to do tele vigilance over us, in the first place, then to shoot us like animals.
Forget the "civilian" usage of drones, that's for camouflaging the objective.

Vigilance it's done over the enemy, it's that so hard to understand???
We are the enemy to them. Why is that so and who are them, that's what we should be discussing.
As well as how to defend ourselves and fight back.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: mjmsprt40 on 2014-07-11, 20:55:41

Saying that drones can be of utility to people it's the first step to use drones against people.
Open your eyes people.

What more will be needed until people understand that they are the enemy for drone's owners. Drones will be used to do tele vigilance over us, in the first place, then to shoot us like animals.
Forget the "civilian" usage of drones, that's for camouflaging the objective.

Vigilance it's done over the enemy, it's that so hard to understand???
We are the enemy to them. Why is that so and who are them, that's what we should be discussing.
As well as how to defend ourselves and fight back.


Step over to that table and pick up your "Katsung47" medal. Not all drone use is for bad purposes, the story about the farmers is in fact a GOOD use of drones-- by the farmers themselves. It's a poor person indeed who doesn't take advantage of technology to make his life better and his business more profitable.

I have a GPS unit sitting on my van's dashboard. I use it to find places I haven't been to, and to give me an estimate of how long it's going to take to get to the place I'm going to. GPS was originally-- and still is-- military hardware, the military uses it to guide missiles and aircraft to targets.

Here in the American Midwest, a fair amount of our electrical power comes from nuclear-powered generating stations. I needn't tell you how nuclear power was first used-- you've undoubtedly seen the history of that for yourself.

Drones are much the same type of thing. Governments use them for surveillance and weapons delivery, civilians use them commercially and for entertainment. It's not all a trick to rape your cattle and rustle your women, regardless of what the breathless conspiracy-mongers tell you.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: rjhowie on 2014-07-11, 21:14:54
Yes you are quite correct there mjsmsprt40 in that there are positive uses for drones and it makes a pleasant side to the more violent pattern. I hope the progressive side will become wider.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Belfrager on 2014-07-11, 23:03:28
Step over to that table and pick up your "Katsung47" medal.

No.

I need no examples of good usages of drone technology, I know them all.
What worries me it's how it's used upon us, not on the farmer's cattle and I'll never accept, as you do, that theres a "small price" to pay so drone technology can be used to, allegedly, very good things.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: mjmsprt40 on 2014-07-12, 00:44:51
Bel, I have bad news for you. You're already accepting it, whether you know it or not.

You typed your reply on some sort of computer, which accessed the Internet. That Internet was and still is part of the military-industrial complex. "They" are spying on you right now through your device, as likely as not.

No, you can't escape. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated into the collective. Your cattle will be raped and your women will be rustled. Don't ask what that means, you don't want to know.

Happy now?

OK-- attempt at humor aside, here's the facts: Much of what we use today is the result of military hardware being put to civilian use. Fly from Lisbon to London on a commercial airliner? The first airplane was built with military purposes in mind, and the first big advances in aviation came about as the result of military applications of the aircraft. The airplane became viable because of military needs, and we turned these craft to civilian use as they became available.

I've already mentioned GPS. That started out as a military device, quickly becoming adapted to civilian navigational purposes.

I get quite a bit of information from the weather websites-- here, I favor Accuweather--and of course I look at regional radar coverage for the American Midwest since I'm likely to go somewhere in the region. The British made the earliest serious efforts at this-- for military purposes when it turned out that radio waves bounced off of aircraft and you could see the enemy coming earlier. Of course the military uses radar to this day-- you won't see a destroyer without a set on board.

The Internet got its start as the Arpanet-- at least around here-- and it was communication between the big universities and the military establishment. You wonder why such a heavy CIA/FBI/NSA presence exists on the Internet-- who do you think invented the thing?

And you worry about drones. It's a little late to bolt and bar the door, the horse has run off some time ago.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Belfrager on 2014-07-12, 09:06:24
No, you can't escape. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated into the collective. Your cattle will be raped and your women will be rustled. Don't ask what that means, you don't want to know.

Happy now?

:)

You're not understanding. I have nothing against the military component on developing technology.

The problem here is if you find funny to appear on the drone's "pilot" screen while riding your van in the middle of your USA, got locked into the weapon system and kaboom. No more mjm.

The problem here it's the usage of military technology on the population by their own security forces. The problem here is, like the Romans have already asked, and who guards the guardians?

The problem here is why people are being increasingly treated as being the enemy, as being a menace. A menace for who???

Drone technology increases all these problems by a thousand times, at a never saw before scale. Nothing to be minimized.

Focus on that and don't diverge, mjm. Good intentions will not protect you.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: mjmsprt40 on 2014-07-12, 11:50:43
Why wait for drones? If "they" wanted to off me, they've had the technology ever since before I was born.

Do you really think an F-14 didn't have the technology to lock on to my vehicle and send a missile my way? That's 1970s technology-- the F-14 is out of date today and isn't used by US forces anymore-- but they had the technology back then to do the job from over the horizon if they put their minds to it. Pick up my van on radar, get the target lock, send a heat-seeking or radar-guided missile-- show's over.

Drones are just the latest scary weapon system. Like a lot of other hardware that first saw light-of-day in the military, it's getting into civilian hands for civilian purposes. A Quad-copter with a camera mount flying over a farmer's field isn't nearly the same thing as a Predator flying over Afghanistan, but the Quad is, in fact, an offspring of the Predator. Not as fancy-- you probably can't sit at a table and see what the Quad sees on a screen like you can with the Predator- though maybe you can, it depends on your camera after all-- but it's the same idea.

You probably need a heavier aircraft than a Quad-copter for crop-dusting, that stuff is heavy and is probably beyond the Quad's lifting capabilities-- but the technology exists so it can be done with a different aircraft.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Sparta on 2014-07-12, 11:53:55
Mj

that description make me have some Question .

Who's and which satelite they use to Control the Drone Cross Continent ?

i guess one satelite isnt enuf .

Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: mjmsprt40 on 2014-07-12, 12:49:18

Mj

that description make me have some Question .

Who's and which satelite they use to Control the Drone Cross Continent ?

i guess one satelite isnt enuf .


These days, a fair number of drones are robots. Set it and forget it, it flies the pre-set course. The TV-guided drones use secure signals over standard  communications satellites-- which incidentally most of those are military/commercial combination satellites- for their guidance. And, you're right-- curvature of the Earth means it takes more than one satellite to control a drone flying over Afghanistan when you're in Colorado. Just off the top of my head, the signal might have to bounce off ten satellites at least between drone and controller. Robot drones are becoming more common simply because you can lose a satellite signal, but you can't lose pre-programmed instructions unless the drone's on-board computer faults.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: string on 2014-07-12, 13:39:57
The problem here it's the usage of military technology on the population by their own security forces. The problem here is, like the Romans have already asked, and who guards the guardians?

The problem here is why people are being increasingly treated as being the enemy, as being a menace. A menace for who???

Drone technology increases all these problems by a thousand times, at a never saw before scale. Nothing to be minimized.
Therein lies the problem, but it's based on paranoia on what "might happen" and assumes not only a hostile Government (a creation beloved of a certain group who shall be nameless) but also a lack of awareness of the checks and balances that exist and which are still needed.

The fallacy in paranoia thinking is simply this:

If you had a government that was prepared to act as aggressively as you fear against "its" citizens, then no amount of moaning would prevent it from acquiring the tools to do so. The solution is not in the moaning, it's in the need to make sure you don't vote in that sort of government in the first place.

mjm - yes the military have had a hand in much of the drone technology, although the man in the park with his remote controlled model steam ship (or indeed in his attic with his model train) may have something to say about that.

One prime example is the Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) used in the maritime industries. See here in Wikki for a run-down on ROVs. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remotely_operated_underwater_vehicle).

Edit: On the subject of paranoia: Tungsten: The perfect metal for bullets and missiles (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28263683).

I wonder if I have to start worrying now about someone dropping a tennis ball on my foot?
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Sparta on 2014-07-12, 14:34:12
Quote
Robot drones

seems legit
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: mjmsprt40 on 2014-07-12, 16:18:16
Much of what went into drones might very well be civilian technology being put to military purpose.

String brings up a good point, we've had radio-controlled models for--- seems like forever. Digital proportional control goes back to when I was a boy, at least, and we've had a lot of improvement since then. How hard would it really be for someone in a lab to take already-existing civilian hardware and improve it to the point it can be relied on to take out an enemy?

Add modern computer controls, cameras which James Bond would have given a week of his life to have way back in the late 60s when the Bond movies first started coming out, modern materials which can absorb radar so you don't send a signal back, and-- there you go. A military application of civilian hardware.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: mjmsprt40 on 2014-07-12, 17:14:52
While I'm thinking on it-- something I don't propose doing for long, by the way because it's not worth it:

Belfrager, you got a Katsung47 medal because of the paranoia in your posts. You remember that Kat has a tendency to believe that the Fed is out to get him, and that they choose the most difficult, least likely to work schemes that they can come up with to accomplish this task. Wile E Coyote is more likely to succeed with all that stuff he buys from Acme than the Feds are likely to have much luck killing Katsung with tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes and I don't know what all else.

So-- taking your example of the government deciding that I am an enemy in need of elimination, what would they do? They could send a missile-equipped drone to target my van-- I suppose that would work. Furiously expensive but it would work. Or, they could send a sharpshooter with a rifle. I don't wear armor, not expecting it, reasonably soft target- one bullet well placed should do the job. Why waste time with drones, or using HAARP to make a tornado hit a town in Oklahoma, or putting poison in the food at the supermarket when the whole issue can be settled by a man hiding behind the neighbor's garage with a rifle? I said before that the technology to kill has existed before I was born-- and so it has. You don't need high tech when low tech will get the job done.

The problem isn't the drones. They're just the latest toy in the arsenal. The issue is who we put in power in our government, and what kind of men these people are. Obama turns out not to be so good in this department-- he's carrying out some of Bush's worst ideas and improving on them-- but we can have hope that the next election nets a better result.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: rjhowie on 2014-07-12, 17:50:27
I'm wondering about drones in a toy or hobby mood as recently I have a recollection that some government agency in the USA was planning to make people have alicence or control over toy flying planes and helicopters??
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: mjmsprt40 on 2014-07-12, 18:19:55

I'm wondering about drones in a toy or hobby mood as recently I have a recollection that some government agency in the USA was planning to make people have alicence or control over toy flying planes and helicopters??


When I first got started in R/C models, you had to have a license issued by the FCC to operate a transmitter. My licence back then was KVB7000. That lasted for a couple of years, then the FCC changed the rules so you no longer needed a license to operate in the CB radio frequencies. Most flying fields will have you become a member of the big national clubs for insurance purposes-- once you become a paid member you have liability insurance to cover "what if" when you're operating your models. I operate model boats, so-- in order to operate on those lakes where model boats are allowed, I have to maintain membership in the IMPBA-- again, mainly for insurance purposes.

Model planes, helicopters, boats and cars all have their potential dangers, so I could see where having to have training and a license proving you've had that training could be a reasonable idea.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Belfrager on 2014-07-12, 18:35:11
Belfrager, you got a Katsung47 medal because of the paranoia in your posts.


Therein lies the problem, but it's based on paranoia on what "might happen" and assumes not only a hostile Government (a creation beloved of a certain group who shall be nameless) but also a lack of awareness of the checks and balances that exist and which are still needed.

The fallacy in paranoia thinking is simply this:

If you had a government that was prepared to act as aggressively as you fear against "its" citizens, then no amount of moaning would prevent it from acquiring the tools to do so. The solution is not in the moaning, it's in the need to make sure you don't vote in that sort of government in the first place.

Any government that you are authorized to vote for is "that sort of government."
That's were the fallacy is, not at my reasoning, dear string.

Now for the "paranoia" you both evaluates being so evident in my words.

If there's any paranoia here, it would be about defending our freedom, mine and yours. I never felt menaced by such kind of "paranoia" and there's something very strange happening when people do feel menaced by.

I'll try a final analogy.
You can keep on believing that you're being taken for having a shower... many believed so at Auschwitz.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: mjmsprt40 on 2014-07-12, 19:19:46
Bel, can you explain why, exactly, you might not side with Smileyfaze on the gun-control debate? One reason he has for wanting to be heavily armed is to stop the very type of government shenanigans you're day-nightmareing about. Given your reasoning here, we should all arm ourselves with anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons to defend ourselves against the government.

Oh, wait, that's right. If the citizens arm themselves against the government, that's paranoia because of course your benevolent government would never-- EVER-- take away your rights (except to own your own guns, of course). But, let the government get a drone and equip it with a camera and maybe a missile and all of a sudden it's only moments until they strip us all of even the right to life and ship us wholesale to the gas-chambers. Problem: You can't shoot the thing down because you gave up your rights to arm yourself. That could be a problem.

I don't know what you've been drinking, but you really need to stop.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Belfrager on 2014-07-12, 20:23:15
Bel, can you explain why, exactly, you might not side with Smileyfaze on the gun-control debate?

I do. I just have a different style.
Besides, SmileyFaze has to worry with his American prairies I have to worry about my Iberian terroir.
Different places, different people, different techniques. Same fight.

Given your reasoning here, we should all arm ourselves with anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons to defend ourselves against the government.

In the first place, even before start shooting, we do have a responsibility with the next generations, never forget that.
I don't want them to say that their grand fathers did nothing to defend them.
Ours did, we also have to do it.

The siege on individual freedom don't stop growing. That happens all over so called developed world. I see a pattern on that.
I see a menace on that.

About the "pathetic" that resistance can seem to you, I tell you the biggest truth of all - No one can go to war sure that he's going to win.
Don't worry with victory, just fight for what's just, for what are your rights, for your freedom, for your descendants to have a future.
Do what you have to do.

We belong to the generations that lived the biggest and fastest change in the world.
You, as well as many others, don't still believe that the dark dystopian literary fiction, that we read about at our youth, it's already the reality that we are living.

People don't deal well with change, they refuse to see what's in front of them.
That our first weakness. Don't let it to be your last one, wake up.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: rjhowie on 2014-07-13, 00:24:39
Interesting answer to my query there mjsmsprt40.  Considering how long this hobby has been going on it did seem a little over the top. Not sure of there have been a spate of things to bring this action about.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: string on 2014-07-14, 15:51:54
For fans of drone hardware - there are a few snippets here (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28290945).

There are one or two interesting videos linked into the sites you'll visit when looking at the drones, probably some of them worth threads in their own "right"..
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: SmileyFaze on 2014-07-16, 22:48:33
......But, let the government get a drone and equip it with a camera and maybe a missile and all of a sudden it's only moments until they strip us all of even the right to life and ship us wholesale to the gas-chambers. Problem: You can't shoot the thing down because you gave up your rights to arm yourself. That could be a problem.


My problem is with the way the government could, & by recent NSA activity, would use drones to pry into a citizens private affairs without just cause, which is expressly forbidden by the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/fourth_amendment).

Otherwise, I don't have problems with drones per se, if they are used strictly in the form as an innocent, unobtrusive 'hobby', just as long as they respect my 'space'.

I have personally shot down 2 drones over my property a fair while back, & to date I haven't been dragged to court by their owners for doing so.

Who were the owners??

For the record, the parts I recovered, & took to the authorities (personal friends in law enforcement) gave no clues as to ownership. I also had private security professionals inspect them, with the same results.

The cameras were low-grade, & their transmitters & receivers were also commonly available -- to any hobbyist.

Your guess is as good as any, but I would have to assume whomever owned them didn't want it known publicly, or for their own sake, known to me.

Since then I haven't had any dealings with pesky drones, either they have stopped, or they've gotten stealthier.  I think they probably have just stopped, but............
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: rjhowie on 2014-07-17, 02:02:48
Just to put your mind at rest I would state that it wasn't me that sent them.......
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: jax on 2014-08-09, 09:28:44
TED droning on for fifteen years, and five gifs (http://ideas.ted.com/2013/11/20/15-years-of-drones-at-ted-in-five-gifs/).

(https://dndsanctuary.eu/imagecache.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Ftedideas.files.wordpress.com%2F2013%2F11%2Fpaulmaccreedy.gif%3Fw%3D770&hash=e4c57c6f82be49e882083789525eea91" rel="cached" data-hash="e4c57c6f82be49e882083789525eea91" data-warn="External image, click here to view original" data-url="http://tedideas.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/paulmaccreedy.gif?w=770)

(https://dndsanctuary.eu/imagecache.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Ftedideas.files.wordpress.com%2F2013%2F11%2Fregina-dugan.gif%3Fw%3D770&hash=8ec395402ccdf526a99dd6e228382ec1" rel="cached" data-hash="8ec395402ccdf526a99dd6e228382ec1" data-warn="External image, click here to view original" data-url="http://tedideas.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/regina-dugan.gif?w=770)

(https://dndsanctuary.eu/imagecache.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Ftedideas.files.wordpress.com%2F2013%2F11%2Fdandrea2.gif%3Fw%3D770&hash=e27370b9c0939b09bbd5c39910a03b5c" rel="cached" data-hash="e27370b9c0939b09bbd5c39910a03b5c" data-warn="External image, click here to view original" data-url="http://tedideas.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/dandrea2.gif?w=770)
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: string on 2014-08-09, 10:31:57
(https://dndsanctuary.eu/imagecache.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Ftedideas.files.wordpress.com%2F2013%2F11%2Fdandrea2.gif%3Fw%3D770&hash=e27370b9c0939b09bbd5c39910a03b5c" rel="cached" data-hash="e27370b9c0939b09bbd5c39910a03b5c" data-warn="External image, click here to view original" data-url="http://tedideas.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/dandrea2.gif?w=770)
A portable bar - how wonderful; this will convince evereyone. rjh - think Irm Bru!
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Belfrager on 2014-08-13, 08:59:32
The colibri drone is sweet, how cute...
If they show you a little bird it's because they already have a malaria/ebola/whatever infectious mosquito drone. By the millions.

Military technology is how much advanced regarding commercial one? twenty years? thirty years? just imagine what they already have ready to be used against populations.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: rjhowie on 2014-08-13, 17:08:44
I'd love a drone and take it to Lisbon on holiday and see if i could dropsome good spiritual  leaflets on the place.....
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Belfrager on 2014-08-13, 18:31:24
Worst than Jehovah Witnesses.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: mjmsprt40 on 2014-08-13, 19:07:08
I reckon it all depends on who is using the drone and what it's being used for.

Belfrager sounds terrified about these things, seems the only purpose he can think of is military or mass murder. Maybe it's not that bad.
Amazon had the idea of using drones to deliver small packages. It would have to be small because the drones they were/are using don't have that great a lifting capacity.

Someone has suggested that drones could be used in search and rescue work. A drone could locate a lost hiker, and that can cut down dramatically on the manpower that needs to be expended in a large forest, for example.

Much of the field work in improving drones will be in the hobby sector, as inventive minds set to work making these things lift things they probably shouldn't be lifting, and getting precision flying down so you can play games with it.

I'm not too concerned with the military coming up with drones the size of a mosquito. The Pentagon mind doesn't work that way. They'll come up with a drone the size of a B-52 that can lift an Abrams tank-- but the idea of mosquitoes carrying ebola virus--- nope, generals can't get their heads around an idea like that one. They want something big that costs a lot of money, not something that won't be noticed by the folks back home who have to be talked into financing the next boondoggle.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Belfrager on 2014-08-13, 19:44:25
Belfrager sounds terrified about these things, seems the only purpose he can think of is military or mass murder. Maybe it's not that bad.

Oh no, I have wonderful ideas for drones - carrying a spray of paint and painting all those f*cking vigilance camera's lenses. What about that? beautiful :)

I also have ideas for caterpillars in case you are interested... :)
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: jax on 2014-08-14, 18:04:09

Military technology is how much advanced regarding commercial one? twenty years? thirty years? just imagine what they already have ready to be used against populations.
Once upon a time, probably. Back when countries and their governments were powerful they had the means to develop technologies and keep them. These days most  research&development is done privately, and the military is behind the curve as well as ahead of it.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Belfrager on 2014-08-14, 20:51:20
Once upon a time, probably. Back when countries and their governments were powerful they had the means to develop technologies and keep them. These days most  research&development is done privately, and the military is behind the curve as well as ahead of it.

Research&development It's done privately but it doesn't means that we know it exists or how developed it is currently.

GPS (originally a military technology) has today a precision for the general public about 1.5 to 3 meters. For the military it will be no more than 20 centimeters.
Best satellite photography commercially available will have about one meter resolution, military use satellite resolutions that allows for face recognition software since several years ago.
And so on.

From times to times, leaks of information appears that allows people to think in much more advanced things than the above examples. I know nothing about how much such leaks can be trusted but it's a possibility that immensely advanced systems to be already under developing and testing.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: rjhowie on 2014-08-14, 23:47:33
Jehovah Witnesses and conceited folk have a lot in common dear Belfrager.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: string on 2014-08-15, 16:01:24
Here's a novel application for a tolerated drone:
Explore Britain's Tate museum after dark via robot (http://www.cnet.com/news/explore-britains-tate-museum-after-dark-via-robot/)

As I understand it anyone worldwide will be able to operate this thing and look round the museum. There's likely to be a long waiting list though.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: ensbb3 on 2014-08-16, 02:48:49

Here's a novel application for a tolerated drone:
Explore Britain's Tate museum after dark via robot (http://www.cnet.com/news/explore-britains-tate-museum-after-dark-via-robot/)

As I understand it anyone worldwide will be able to operate this thing and look round the museum. There's likely to be a long waiting list though.


Nice! It starts at a perfect time tomorrow for me. Looks like fun, string. Thanks :)
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: ensbb3 on 2014-08-19, 00:13:47
Actually... That was pretty lame.

Limited lighting, pointless control and constant commentary killed it for me. I'd much rather of just took a virtual tour or something. 
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: string on 2014-08-31, 14:25:15
‘Project Wing’: Google tests drone deliveries in outback Australia (http://rt.com/news/183556-google-drone-delivery-australia/)

I have it from an impeachable source that the next delivery will be tt's crocodile searching kit - €A64.99.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: mjmsprt40 on 2014-09-05, 00:24:53
Finally--- Drone technology DnD can believe in!

(https://dndsanctuary.eu/imagecache.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fassets.amuniversal.com%2F0f4741000ee4013297de005056a9545d&hash=a56bd5e9b5b4d220a1e037b10d76ebbf" rel="cached" data-hash="a56bd5e9b5b4d220a1e037b10d76ebbf" data-warn="External image, click here to view original" data-url="http://assets.amuniversal.com/0f4741000ee4013297de005056a9545d)
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: mjmsprt40 on 2014-09-06, 18:56:48
(https://dndsanctuary.eu/imagecache.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F1rJWbsa.png%3F1&hash=efc8782b813db10fc970460043925433" rel="cached" data-hash="efc8782b813db10fc970460043925433" data-warn="External image, click here to view original" data-url="http://i.imgur.com/1rJWbsa.png?1)
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: tt92 on 2014-09-06, 19:22:52
 :lol:
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: rjhowie on 2014-09-06, 23:54:31
Now that is a slight possible contradiction dear Chicago man as a while back I noticed a news item where people were being hampered flying their wee aeroplanes. Won't bother saying what country it was.  :D
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: tt92 on 2014-10-28, 22:00:15
A brief, not-very-well edited report

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-28/drones-help-in-whale-research/5849304

Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Belfrager on 2014-10-28, 22:35:13
Thankfully, whales don't help in drone research....
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: jax on 2016-06-04, 10:30:47
Drone video of tourists standing on things.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXiFgNm9LrQ

Maybe because it's the start of the tourist culling season, or maybe just to bug @Jimbro3738 .
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: jax on 2016-06-09, 10:27:18
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsnB0t9AvJs

Will there be a 2.0, the Predator version?
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Frenzie on 2016-06-09, 19:35:19
Oh yeah, I saw that before. At some point maybe they'll have hunter drones. :P
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: rjhowie on 2016-06-10, 12:31:25
Seems there has been experimenting with a human drone project.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Mr. Tennessee on 2016-06-10, 17:19:42
DnD has its own drones, the kind that eagles never catch...unless the moderators are able...Never mind.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Belfrager on 2016-06-11, 21:42:59
DnD has its own drones, the kind that eagles never catch...unless the moderators are able...Never mind.
The first DnD biography....
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: rjhowie on 2016-06-13, 13:37:08
It is not so much being able jimbro.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: jax on 2017-02-23, 16:54:44
Northern China drone defence:

https://youtu.be/_We-ZE0iuC8
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Frenzie on 2017-02-23, 17:31:02
I'd certainly do that if I were a tiger. Buzzing annoyances. Btw, that reminded me of this video about the abilities of modern image stabilization systems as showcased in BBC's Planet Earth 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAOKOJhzYXk
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: krake on 2017-02-24, 12:42:03
Northern China drone defence:

https://youtu.be/_We-ZE0iuC8
Not the most effective defense one can think of. :)
That park has almost as many tigers as China's whole tiger population living in the wild.

BTW, an interesting documentary about the Amur Tiger:
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHq7yEdE00o[/video]
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Belfrager on 2017-03-02, 22:39:13
Btw, that reminded me of this video about the abilities of modern image stabilization systems as showcased in BBC's Planet Earth 2:
Or should I say, the abilities for fooling spectators? the abilities for controlling the weak minds? perhaps, the abilities for arresting you to the sofá?
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: jax on 2018-05-06, 17:03:48
Drone pixels, or more properly voxels (droxels?). This is not the first kilodrone display though.

https://youtu.be/4mHDDG3FCjs
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: ensbb3 on 2018-05-10, 03:40:32
I was expecting that to be more fireworky, I guess. At least in the dazzle and pattern display of it all. There's not much wonder in a 'droxel' screen displaying characters. That's neat, but I totally get that you could do that. I suppose battery life is a big concern but a little more "wow" would of been nice. I'm sure it plays better in person too. Videos aren't known for doing such things justice.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: jax on 2018-05-10, 17:32:02
Yes, for pure spectacle the most excessive was a mix of fairly old-fashioned fireworks, props, and a ridiculously oversized LED screen opening Shanghai Expo 8 years ago.

https://youtu.be/_1DBfe-zBzE

Fireworks is increasingly getting banned, even in China, as a fire and health hazard, so there are alternatives like laser, sound and light shows. 

https://youtu.be/z1V5H5q_gQ8
All in all a reusable, sustainable, and relatively harmless alternative. You can also project on water, buildings and other natural or manmade features, and highrises these days often have pixelated wall displays, as well as computer-operated indoor lighting. 


https://youtu.be/C6-UCkS7lKw
Is the above drone display more dazzling than that? Well, no. Isn't synchronised drone dancing overkill for essentially a voxel display? Well, yes. But being programmable, scalable, and extensible it can be both bigger and better as the drone displays are debugged and encapsulated. A million laser-equipped drones diving towards you could make for quite some experience.




Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: ensbb3 on 2018-05-10, 23:16:32
Yes, for pure spectacle the most excessive was a mix of fairly old-fashioned fireworks, props, and a ridiculously oversized LED screen
For sure. A full fireworks display is quite busy but a right mix could be a great precursor to more digital shows. Drones with huge bursters in the back drop might be hard to keep track of. But drone acrobatics with concussive accents would be awesome.
But being programmable, scalable, and extensible it can be both bigger and better as the drone displays are debugged and encapsulated. A million laser-equipped drones diving towards you could make for quite some experience.
I was thinking more like that. And I was totally on board when I started that video. Them streaming up off the wall, the LEDish screen even. Then they scattered and I was expecting... well more. I mean my criticism undertandingly, tho. My first thought was the battery issue. But to get the sweeping patterns and clustered formations bursting apart or fountains of drones, that I was anticipating, may require more processing power than currently applicable.

Voxels are very cpu intensive. Keeping track of an array of boxes of a certain size and their 3D orientation on a grid with variable states is quite taxing. A battery issue is easily solved with multiple sorties but the dynamic show I had envisioned may still be a bit off. 

*mo' grammar edits.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Belfrager on 2018-05-11, 00:17:50
Now they want to kill fireworks. These people are not humans anymore.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: jax on 2018-05-14, 13:03:43
There is far more fireworks in China than the rest of the world combined. The Chinese spring festival/new year lasts 15 days. Left to their own there will be fireworks all those days. 

https://youtu.be/gz8R9cEy1v4

The best view is from around the 20th floor, then the fireworks explode right outside your window. If you are higher you will be looking down on the fireworks, 
https://youtu.be/qak8OOAIzIs


However, the cost in buildings and human lives lost from firework is massive, as is the smoke pollution. Like this (almost completely finished) skyscraper fire in 2009. No doubt we've reached peak fireworks, alternatives will be found. 

https://youtu.be/U2iAfYxiET8

Speaking of firework, this drone is remote-powered, but an automated one could add some flair to a drone display. 

https://youtu.be/78jCq-PY2oQ
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Belfrager on 2018-05-15, 22:41:51
One of the few things occidentals credit the Chinese is for discovering gunpowder. The base of fireworks.
Now they substitute it for whatever laser manbo jambo and Jax, as always, applauds.

This man will go far. Chinese are known for paying well.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: jax on 2018-05-16, 08:27:01
Outdoor fireworks is going the way of indoor smoking, nothing you or I can do about it, if we wanted to. If you live far enough from built-up areas you might be able to fire up a cigarette or a rocket, as long as you won't set off a forest fire. In Northern latitudes the ground wouldn't be dry around (Western) New Years Eve. I don't know if there are any fire restrictions in the US around 4th of July.

This trend is not Chinese-led, quite the opposite. The Chinese Communist Party is often presented as this all-powerful institution, but they recognise that there are forces more powerful than themselves, and that includes the Chinese need to burn money. (Let's not kid ourselves, Chinese men's need to make a bang. Chinese women fire up too, but not nearly with the same fervour.) Fireworks were banned, but the authorities gave in. The subsequent fires, fatal accidents and maimings, noise and bad air have made them roll back.

Among the odder experiences of my life was living in a technicolor war zone a fortnight a year (the money runs out so there were far less of it by the end than the beginning, but there was always something being blown up). Air pollution comes from power plants, factories, construction and cars, all of which there are far less of during Spring Festival, and the air clears up a lot. But then the fireworks start and you breathe sulphur for the next couple days.

Nothing exceeds like excess, but traditional self-fired fireworks have had their day. Peak firework is behind us. Admittedly laser drones are the fireworks equivalent to vaping, but in time it should be more spectacular with a lot less dying. At least until the first major programming error.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: ersi on 2018-05-16, 09:18:14
Not sure if this is topical, but Alexei Navalny enjoys droning a lot above oligarch and high-up state officials' estates.

[video]https://youtu.be/rbRoZyuOijk?t=55[/video]
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Frenzie on 2018-05-16, 10:18:07
I wonder how you furnish so many rooms. :P
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Belfrager on 2018-05-19, 00:12:47
Drones and kites fly over Gaza protests.

Israeli drones launching gas over manifestants against Palestinian kites with incendiary tales.

Just search in the internet.
 Aren't drones such a good thing?
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: rjhowie on 2018-05-19, 22:17:05
You are being brained. Israel is the dangerous lot.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: jax on 2020-10-15, 13:01:05
We're getting somewhere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QamGaDNczJw
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: ensbb3 on 2020-10-18, 16:57:20
Swarm of flying dicks, fml.

Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: jax on 2020-10-18, 17:37:47
Flying pricks, even 

https://youtu.be/J8fFVOoqepc?t=180
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: rjhowie on 2020-10-18, 23:10:05
I am not impressed with that  Alexei Navalny.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: jax on 2021-06-21, 15:49:19
This drone tracks human screams (to save lives) (https://www.engadget.com/researchers-made-a-drone-that-can-locate-screaming-humans-204643811.html)

Quote
A team of researchers from Germany’s Fraunhofer FKIE institute has created a drone that can locate screaming humans. While it sounds like the stuff of dystopian fiction, it’s actually something they set out to create to make it easier for first responders to find survivors following a natural disaster.

“(Drones) can cover a larger area in a shorter period of time than rescuers or trained dogs on the ground,” Macarena Varela, one of the lead engineers on the project, told The Washington Post. “If there’s a collapsed building, it can alert and assist rescuers. It can go places they can’t fly to or get to themselves.”

To create their drone, the researchers first recorded themselves screaming,
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: ensbb3 on 2021-06-28, 20:05:18
The article covers the obvious doubts you'd have about sound detection capabilities but doesn't say much towards if it is actually a good idea. Sure, some way to search over a devastated area could be useful but is this that?

How long will it linger listening to tapping or some animal moving around before moving on to useful targets?
Will it make some noise to let people know to scream or whatever? (only to get a false positive from my first question coincidentally.)
If there's a TV left on with a horror movie playing are emergency services on the way?
Why keep the drone lite? Infrared cameras, big mics or whatever it could use to actually confirm should be on there, right? (I know, budget for the project. Just don't act like that's a positive feature.)

I'm just busting balls. I'm sure it has some benefits at flagging areas and whatnot. It's just an article. I'm sure the smarties screaming in a field that picture shows have got this. And my dumbass can't be bothered to look up anything else, assuming there is anything in English anyway.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Frenzie on 2021-06-29, 09:19:40
Why keep the drone lite? Infrared cameras, big mics or whatever it could use to actually confirm should be on there, right? (I know, budget for the project. Just don't act like that's a positive feature.)
Less budget than physics I'd think?
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: ensbb3 on 2021-06-29, 12:08:50
That's a fair point.

There's a natural gas pumping station not too far from here that uses drones with infrared cameras to check their pipelines. They used to use a helicopter to do this at night but last year or so they seem to use two fairly large drones to do it now. The drones they use would have to have the range that would be useful in search and rescue as well. I'm sure they aren't cheap however clearly there's an advantage to a helicopter crew's cost.

Drone parts aren't bleeding edge tech and small lite drone parts are cheap and easily available. Using microphones that come with SBC kits, similar to cell phone mics, are nothing fancy and anyone thats tried to talk on one in loud conditions can probably see the problem. My phones mic, noise cancellation included, doesn't hold its weight compared to my PC's mic. Expectedly of course.

I guess my thoughts were to doing the job the best and lite low cost wasn't what I found important. Spend time cancelling sounds vibration using a low grade mic or put a better one suspended below? It's now a heavier rig, sure. bigger motors, batteries, cameras... stop me when emergency services can only buy two for the price of a chopper that they still have to crew and still can't do what the drone can do kinda thing. That's not saying I'm looking at it right. I got a little amused by the screaming in a field thing, I admit. And cheap lite drones anyone can deploy seems like a good idea when you hear it. I just think the article focused on silly aspects, mentioning dystopian sci-fi and comparing it to a dog's capabilities at the same time, while ignoring some of how it compares to what there is now and how it would fit in with examples that feel more serious. But, I'm still just arguing what an article said. 
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: Frenzie on 2021-06-29, 12:15:49
I mean, it's audio people making an audio thing. I'm sure that once they have a working system it'll be comparatively peanuts to combine it with a few other systems. :)
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: jax on 2021-07-01, 07:32:32
Run-of-the-alibaba drones are noisy little buggers, and their name notwithstanding the noise drones make is far from monotonous.  As an uneducated guess it will take some brain power just to cancel that out together with microphone artefacts.

I am no sound engineer, but I would think you'd need at least three microphones. Two to provide a binaural recording, one as a control. You might manage with less if you have several synchronised drones. Indeed (at least) a pair of drones should perform much better than a single drone, given that you have the time, the locations and the relative speed (and thus Doppler effect). Near-perfect noise cancelling seems achievable. Another option would be quieter drones, which I imagine there would be a significant market for in surveillance. A zeppelin or blimp drone would make a lot of sense to stay up longer, and stay silent when not needing to move. Presumably they already exist, and a quick google showed that they do. Curiously silence is not highlighted as a selling point.

Any case, the pair/swarm would have to keep synchronised and know the others' position for mapping the soundscape as well.  And they should preferably not move in formation, so as to take advantage of the Doppler effect. Sound has some advantages over vision. For us vision provides far more information, but only in a narrow field, while we can hear sounds from any direction. That advantage is less obvious for drones. Wide-angle cameras are freely available, and what you can't solve by that you can solve by adding more cameras, or failing that buzzing more energetically around.

Whether visual or aural, it would be advantageous to have mapped the area before, because then you can focus on what have changed since earlier. For the flying sonar probes that could be fallen trees, fallen buildings, moving cars. This is the first advantage of sound, far less data to process (and to filter out). The second advantage is that sound carries through air and other mediums, and reflects from (or affect) surfaces. Even the better radio/radar frequencies don't do quite as well. 

Using these tricks to filter/augment sounds, I don't know how well the sound profiles perform. I assume it would be difficult. At least I find it hard. There is quite a lot of animal activity outside my windows, and if I open them I never can tell if somebody is being dismembered outside, or if it is a particularly horny crow. Maybe machines can do better. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X_WvGAhMlQ

So summing up, I'd use several drones or at least microphones to self-cancel. Preferably with a system knowing the landscape and what to expect so that the unexpected becomes more salient. Triangulate what might fit the profile. Circle back to points of interest to filter out some false positives and maybes.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: jax on 2021-07-01, 12:19:05
All this and I didn't bother to RTFM (or paper in this case (https://acoustics.org/1aspa5-saving-lives-during-disasters-by-using-drones-macarena-varela/)), even though it was the first link in the article. It seems the cleverness is in the sound processing, and "situational awareness" is not required. 

In that regard it is a little reminiscent of the Bruitparif Medusa (https://www.bruitparif.fr/pages/En-tete/500%20Projets%20de%20recherche/230%20Articles%20scientifiques/2018%20-%20Medusa.pdf) (Méduse), though that system is tasked to detect (and locate and photograph and fine) high sound volume sources, not to detect signs of distress.

(https://i.insider.com/5d70e2062e22af4da465d233?width=700)

Major cities are introducing noise radars that automatically issue fines to loud vehicles to combat noise pollution (https://www.businessinsider.com/major-cities-introducing-noise-radars-to-fine-loud-vehicles-2019-9)

Stationary and mobil drone systems are complementary auditory approaches to e.g. an earthquake or a building collapse. In the former case, or in a search for a missing person, a stationary approach may not be practicable. Then it might be better to
train humans to yell Alexa! or Siri! (depending on the tribe they belong to). In yet other scenarios, e.g. an avalanche, any sonar approach is unlikely to succeed, but infrared or radar drones might.

Rescue is not the only use case. Crime fighting might benefit from drones (or stationary sensors) listening in to the sound of gun shots, possibly followed up by a scream.  If there has been a gun shot without any registered gun nearby, or if a gun has been fired in built-up areas, police (or more drones) might be dispatched.

The sound profile of a gun fired should be recognisable to a neural network, probably not enough to id an individual gun, but possibly the brand. This I did not find in a cursory google search, so either the idea is not common, or it doesn't work.
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: ersi on 2022-10-19, 15:17:28
Seven Russians arrested in Norway in four days for flying drones. The Russians say they were filming aurora borealis.

Krig ser også sånn ut (https://www.nrk.no/ytring/krig-ser-ogsa-sann-ut-1.16144637)
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: jax on 2022-11-24, 12:43:46
Old Opera drones (https://web.archive.org/web/20131106074741/http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=1621812)
Title: Re: Drone Technology
Post by: jax on 2024-02-10, 13:12:09
And now we have entered the year of the wood dragon.

Speaking of which, entertainment drones are improving gradually.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jYYzOyQ51vE