People tend to assume that UAVs will be used by the police to keep watch on us, but as this video, taken by a RoboKopter of riots in Warsaw, shows, they can equally be used by citizens to keep tabs on the police. No need to wait for the local news to send a helicopter to get the aerial scene of a demonstration, just Do It Yourself!
Via Kottke
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It may sound naive, but distrust goes both ways. If society doesn't trust the police, the police in turn will treat people as hostile to them, and it's a vicious circle.
@Ellison"you want to film in a public scene like this, I would just try and get permission from the police first. If they're going to object to giving you permission, they probably will not be too happy if you do it without permission."
Oh man you sound truly naive now. Default police answer is 'it would interfere with the requrement of clean communication required for organising police action' or anything similar. The default answer is not yes, it is NO! Unless you prove not guilty. And they always find a reason for not allowing. How do you think in the whole police in a country ruled by descendants of faithful communist you would find a single person that actually cares about potential lost job of somebody involved in technology? Get real. Round Table and peaceful transition to democracy meant for eastern european countries exactly that all rulers, ideologists and prominents stay as they were before.
With a good quality FHSS radio, it'll be hard for the cops to jam it, since they don't normally carry radio jamming equipment as standard kit let alone ones that can jam FHSS. Again this is not Hollywood. It's real life.
And why do people want to antagonize the police? If you want to film in a public scene like this, I would just try and get permission from the police first. If they're going to object to giving you permission, they probably will not be too happy if you do it without permission.
There is a simple solution for the police to put an end to this without trying to shoot down the copter, just claim there is an IED threat and install RF jammers on their riot vehicles. I believe Black Sheep or someone else filming over Berlin encountered the jammer problem.
I personally think this kind of stuff will make the police very uncomfortable and could be banned if used in sensative situations where the police or autorities are involved.But as a member of this community i simply LOVED IT !!!
One fact left out until now:
If it comes down (by any matter) it either lands on a policeman with enough Armour to survive a nuke-attack or on a skinhead nazi, so no damage done to society :-D
There are no easy answers. Enclosed props=less endurance, tighter mission time margins. It leads to nowhere, or ppl flying between 3.4 and 3.2V cell voltage.
There's no doubt that this is going to be a future application for civilian drones. However, when we fly amongst people, one must take great care to ensure that no one gets hurt. That means we must be sure that all the equipment is well tested and reliable. Definitely having enclosed props is one of the prerequisites for flying in areas with people.
I feel like maybe we should start a "Safety Manual".
@Ellison "Besides, if anyone's done any bird hunting, it's not so easy to shoot anything down from the air, living or human controlled."
Exactly, there are videos on youtube of civilian guys spraying M249 on closed site in US into flying RC model. Looks like they spent a few bags of ammo until they hit flying wing from 200m, but not sure if it wasn't just pilot error from how it looked.
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