In the middle of a national debate on the value of commercial UAS usage I found it refreshing to see a positive spin from a major news outlet. The video leads in with a snippet about event security and then moves to show off some neat applications that many of us have seen in the past. All in all a positive showing on CNN. We need more of these!
All the best,
Chris
Comments
Exactly. The fact that it is Drones is almost irrelevant.
But this media message of "Please watch us even more" is driving me crazy. Just because some crazy people blew up a few bombs does not mean that we should invite the people in power to suppress us even more. They are doing that already more than is healthy.
Guys, remember. your children will have to fight back the civil liberties you are pissing away right now for that warm and fuzzy feeling to be safer.
It is not natural to structures of power to give power back. Once it's gone you have to fight to get it back.
Ya, that's what I was thinking anyway!
Thanks,
Sam
Sam you're dead on. The sensors are already in place on many platforms. UAVs aren't the issue, it's really electronic privacy.
The thing is, we are all being watched already--satellite, security cameras...
Single unit surveillance is probable soon (<5 years).
Take-Point robot (flying) (rover/tank now) for incursion (<6 years).
Hive-mind swarming outside the lab [where the coordinating vision system lives] (>7 years).
The concept of autonomy is easy to throw around and has the basis in the public image from sci-fi and movies. The reality is very different. I have a moderately large pile of 'A.I.' books from the 70s and 80s. Other than a very good chess program and the ability to recognize a face (not that it knows what a face really *is*), A.I. is still a research topic.
Siri, BTW is not A.I. It is just sophisticated voice recognition attached to search engines with language inference mixed in.
Autonomy is quite sophisticated. All of my cats are autonomous. Cats recognize danger, usually. Could I train a cat to tell me a gunman is nearby? That has been done with dogs. Which animal is more intelligent? (yeah, I did just go there.. cats vs dogs!)
Regardless, research should continue.
Regardless, the media will exploit the subjects.
Code on!
-=Doug
How is Drones watching people for security is a good thing? It's exactly the thing that frightens me.
Hey, I love drones. I fly them. But I'm scared that soon we will be watched every step by those buggers.
Agreed! We need more things like this!--people are not getting to hear about any of the positive uses of drones, so its only natural they don't like them!