Search results for "Drones"

Congress gets mixed advice on regulating drones

Featured Image: A U.S. Drone. CREDIT: U.S.Air Force (Public-Domain).

From Phys.Org  39 minutes ago by Henry C. Jackson

(AP)—The growing use of unmanned surveillance “eyes in the sky” aircraft raises a thicket of privacy concerns, but the U.S. Congress is getting mixed advice on what, if anything, to do about it.
A future with domestic drones may be inevitable. While civilian drone use is currently limited to government agencies and some public universities, a law passed by Congress last year requires the  to allow widespread drone flights in the U.S. by 2015. According to FAA estimates, as many as 7,500 civilian drones could be in use within five years. . . . Read Complete Report


Drones to deliver beer to concertgoers (Video Report)

Featured Image: A big, frosty mug of beer. SOURCE: wpclipart.com (Public Domain)

I knew there had to be some kind of GOOD use for all those drones. . . EDITOR

From youtube uploaded by RTAmerica·

Published on May 8, 2013

The OppiKoppi festival in South Africa is planning on offering concertgoers the option of remotely ordering brews. . . . From description published with video.

Robotics: Insect-Eye Camera Offers Wide-Angle Vision for Tiny Drones

Featured image: Scanning electron microscope image of an eye on a fruit fly. Image is a high magnification view of part of the eye. CREDIT: Dartmouth College. SOURCE:  Wikipedia Commons. (Public Domain)

From IEEE Spectrum By Jeremy Hsu Posted 

Engineers make a tiny compound eye

New “insect eye” cameras could someday help flying drones see into every corner of a battlefield or give tiny medical scopes an all-around view inside the human body. A team of researchers from the United States has constructed such a camera, which offers an almost 180-degree field of view using hundreds of tiny lenses.

The centimeter-wide digital camera has 180 microlenses—roughly what fire ants or bark beetles have in their compound eyes—placed on a hemispherical array. Researchers hope their design will eventually lead to insect-eye cameras that exceed even nature’s blueprints, according to a report in the 2 May issue of the journal Nature. . . . Read Complete Report

Alex Jones: Seriously! DHS Testing Gun Detecting Drones (Video Report)

From youtube uploaded by  TheAlexJonesChannel

Published on Apr 10, 2013

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is testing a wide variety of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (SUAS) sensor platforms, including one that can determine whether individuals are armed or unarmed, for use by first responders and frontline homeland security professionals.

The testing is taking place at the Oklahoma Training Center for Unmanned Systems (OTC-UC), a unit of University Multispectral Laboratories (UML), a not-for-profit scientific institution operated for Oklahoma State University (OSU) by Anchor Dynamics, Inc. UML is a “Trusted Agent” for the federal government, technology developers and operators. http://www.wnd.com/wnd_video/dhs-test…

UPDATE: Better Eyes for Flying Robots (+) MAV’s -Micro Air Vehicles, Mini-Spy & Attack Drones (Video Report)

Photo: Micro Air Vehicle. United States Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Kenneth-G.-Takada SOURCE Wikipedia (Public Domain)

From IEEE Spectrum 

New systems could improve the vision of micro aerial vehicles

By RACHEL COURTLAND  /  APRIL 2013

Aerial robotics research has brought us flapping hummingbirdsseagulls,bumblebees, and dragonflies. But if these robots are to do anything more than bear a passing resemblance to their animal models, there is one thing they’ll definitely need: better vision.

In February, at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in San Francisco, two teams presented new work (PDF) aimed at building better-performing and lower-power vision systems that would help aerial robots navigate and aid them in identifying objects. 
. . . Read Complete Report

From youtube updated by GlobalPrison

MAV’s -Micro Air Vehicles, Mini-Spy & Attack Drones

Published on Feb 21, 2013

The MAV project is designed for surveillence, possible targetting/laser tagging and possible attack/assassination of specific areas and individuals…

Dronestream: Keeping Track of the strikes (Video Report)

from Huff Post 

NYU’s Josh Begley has launched a Twitter account where he’s tweeting every reported US drone strike over the past 10 years.

US Congress hears calls for drone safeguards (+) Ron Paul’s Texas Straight Talk 3/11/13: Congress, Drones, and The Imperial Presidency (Video Report)

From Space War by Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) March 20, 2013

Lawmakers and advocates on Wednesday called for safeguards to be placed on the domestic use of drones in order to protect the privacy of Americans.

Congress has ordered the Federal Aviation Administration to open up airspace to the unmanned aircraft by October 2015, a decision expected to see thousands of drones criss-crossing the sky within a few years.

Their imminent proliferation has stirred a debate, amid concerns they may be deployed to snoop on law-abiding citizens. . . . Read Complete Report

From youtube uploaded minnesotachris

Ron Paul’s Texas Straight Talk 3/11/13: Congress, Drones, and The Imperial Presidency

Published on Mar 10, 2013

First US city bans drones (Video Report)

from RTAmerica· via youtube Published on Mar 4, 2013

Rand Paul threatens to block Brennan nomination Until Questions about Killing Americans with Drones are answered(W/Video)

from youtube uploaded by  RTAmerica

Published on Feb 14, 2013

United States Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) is threatening to delay the confirmation of John O. Brennan as head of the CIA until he gets all the answers about the Obama administration’s covert drone program. Sen. Paul has sent two letters to Mr. Brennan since the start of the year, and this week said he has yet to hear a response. Now Sen. Paul says he will put a hold on Pres. Obama’s nomination for CIA director until he hears all the answers about America’s drones, the extrajudicial killings of US citizens and the elusive ‘disposition matrix’ used to identify targets. J.D. Tuccile, managing editor of Reason 24/7, offers us more.

NOVA: The Rise of the Drones: A Single Shot

from PBS

Watch Rise of the Drones on PBS. See more from NOVA.