Small local DRONES anyone?
Dec 31, 2013 at 3:17am Edited
http://nypost.com/2013/09/05/man-decapitated-by-remote-controlled-toy-helicopter/
At CHS our intent is to have one or two drones. One purpose is to work with professors at local universities on projects that support our own students in pursuit of projects eligible for Intel/Siemens/Google science competitions. The drone would be used in mapping our the South Mountain Reservation, helping in assessing vegetation season by season and after major storms, counting wildlife etc. We have a student who is pursuing such a project. This can be accomplished by a commercial drone like Parrot, a French company. The drone can be controlled via tablet/laptop and has a camera. We would look to have multiple cameras -- infra-red as well as regular video.
A more ambitious project is to have a drone we can program. The Computer Club (another new club that joins ranks with the Robotics Club, Science Olympiad, Science League, Science Bowl) may take this project on. As usual, financial support will be needed. Our intent on the programming side is to likewise form a partnership with a local university. Discussions have begun already with a couple of schools.
At this juncture we still have to investigate any and all restrictions on drone use. For now, we intend to use them in areas like the Reservation.
This may not happen until the summer as a bunch of things need to get done first.
A more ambitious project is to have a drone we can program. The Computer Club (another new club that joins ranks with the Robotics Club, Science Olympiad, Science League, Science Bowl) may take this project on. As usual, financial support will be needed. Our intent on the programming side is to likewise form a partnership with a local university. Discussions have begun already with a couple of schools.
At this juncture we still have to investigate any and all restrictions on drone use. For now, we intend to use them in areas like the Reservation.
This may not happen until the summer as a bunch of things need to get done first.
I've also seen news videos of true minimization of drones, -the size of insects and also drones that can fly in a swarm, -reacting independently to each other's proximity much the way a flock of birds fly or a school of fish swim. Sci-fi coming real.
We certainly would like to have our students be capable of programming sets of drones to fly in a coordinated fashion -- meaning sensors on the drones so each knows where the others are. This is certainly a difficult enough program to execute in a 2-dimensial space like a floor, but moving into a 3-dimensional space is considerably more difficult. Parrot drones have been programmed to execute very interesting formation flying patterns, but the software appears to be a closed system with access only by Parrott personnel. We would need to have a different set of small drones that we can program. All of this is on our "drawing boards" at CHS.
What about privacy issues?
I know people who like to use their secluded hot tub au naturel. If a drone comes across the property line and hovers over me, am I allowed to shoot it down with a good oldfashioned slingshot?
I know people who like to use their secluded hot tub au naturel. If a drone comes across the property line and hovers over me, am I allowed to shoot it down with a good oldfashioned slingshot?
Dec 31, 2013 at 6:32am Edited
A very good question that the gov't will have to address -- the smaller drones are the size of birds and the military and CIA use small ones all the time for surveillance operations, not just the big Hellfire-shooting drones. At some height above the ground -- whatever that height is -- the FAA or some other fed agency would have to regulate as drones could interfere with helicopter operations; drones near airports most likely would be banned, for both safety and security reasons. I suspect this will be an endless battle as to where drones can fly and what measures can be used by the government to make sure drones do not interfere with flight operations.
Drones at lower altitudes, such as street level, may be regulated by localities or states. I doubt the right to fly a drone would supercede the right to privacy -- but having said that we do note the Google has constantly invaded privacy in the public domain by capturing all sorts of info off computers that happened to be on while there mapping trucks drove by. Why wouldn't Google use drones for more detailed mapping and capturing as much data as possible?
Of course, local PDs will use drones for a variety of functions supplementing street cameras and aiding in hot pursuit cases, doing surveillance when huge crowds of teenagers decide to swarm in downtown South Orange and so on.
We are only at the beginning stages of drones -- the CIA and Pentagon opened the door very wide and now we can buy them at Radio Shack and Barnes and Noble or online. Give an army of programmers and engineers 20 years, we will see hundreds of thousands or even millions of them in use. Of this, there is no doubt. Watch someone run a drone that follows a congressman or senator or governor, takes photos of every person the official meets, flies up to the windows and takes a picture. More sophisticated ones can use the same tech that spies used to use to capture conversations by measuring window vibrations as people speak.
Drones will be a difficult technology to control.
Drones at lower altitudes, such as street level, may be regulated by localities or states. I doubt the right to fly a drone would supercede the right to privacy -- but having said that we do note the Google has constantly invaded privacy in the public domain by capturing all sorts of info off computers that happened to be on while there mapping trucks drove by. Why wouldn't Google use drones for more detailed mapping and capturing as much data as possible?
Of course, local PDs will use drones for a variety of functions supplementing street cameras and aiding in hot pursuit cases, doing surveillance when huge crowds of teenagers decide to swarm in downtown South Orange and so on.
We are only at the beginning stages of drones -- the CIA and Pentagon opened the door very wide and now we can buy them at Radio Shack and Barnes and Noble or online. Give an army of programmers and engineers 20 years, we will see hundreds of thousands or even millions of them in use. Of this, there is no doubt. Watch someone run a drone that follows a congressman or senator or governor, takes photos of every person the official meets, flies up to the windows and takes a picture. More sophisticated ones can use the same tech that spies used to use to capture conversations by measuring window vibrations as people speak.
Drones will be a difficult technology to control.
They might be great for search and rescue missions. Infra-red cameras, GPS, regular cameras. Would they be able to fly in crummy weather better than larger craft?
from Merriam-Webster for the grammatically correct police:
Usage Discussion of SUPERCEDE
Supercede has occurred as a spelling variant of supersede since the 17th century, and it is common in current published writing. It continues, however, to be widely regarded as an error.
My most humble apologies.
Usage Discussion of SUPERCEDE
Supercede has occurred as a spelling variant of supersede since the 17th century, and it is common in current published writing. It continues, however, to be widely regarded as an error.
My most humble apologies.
As to flying in lousy weather, most now are very small and light weight, which means winds can throw them around wildly. Not sure at this stage if they would perform at all in rainy weather -- they would be subject to many of the same problems that larger craft experience -- icing on surfaces being a major issue. Since they are light their motors are sized to the weight they are expected to carry, so motors may not pack a lot of punch -- and in sleet and heavy snow weather expect ice to accumulate on the drone making them heavier. Also, the cameras might not be able to see very much in rain and snow. So my guess is at this stage drones might not be very useful in lousy weather.
They could fly at night and infra-red cameras could help find people lost in wilderness areas, so that might be a plus.
They could fly at night and infra-red cameras could help find people lost in wilderness areas, so that might be a plus.
Drones are a creepy idea. At first it will seem so benign. As with most everything else with new technology, drones will become marketing vehicles. Anyone remember the floating (sub-neural) advertising satellites in "Blade Runner?" You're getting undressed for bed, and suddenly a floating drone appears outside your window shilling some pharmaceutical. At the same time an on-board drone cam will be filming video of your thunder thighs for national security purposes; courtesy of the NSA.
Nothing that's a potential money maker stays small. Amazon will deliver vacuum cleaners via drone. I plan to have slingshot at the ready. Also, people could get injured, if not killed, if they malfunction and crash. Any remote controlled bladed vehicle is a risk.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2413231/Roman-Pirozek-Jr-Man-decapitates-remote-control-helicopter.html
Nothing that's a potential money maker stays small. Amazon will deliver vacuum cleaners via drone. I plan to have slingshot at the ready. Also, people could get injured, if not killed, if they malfunction and crash. Any remote controlled bladed vehicle is a risk.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2413231/Roman-Pirozek-Jr-Man-decapitates-remote-control-helicopter.html
Where the line is drawn between "drones" and "model airplanes" (which is what killed the man in the article cited above) is very difficult to draw. Model airplanes that are remote controlled have been around for about a half century or more -- small, fast, and didn't carry cameras. Now they can carry cameras and some can be programmed; others are simply "drones" in the sense that they go where the operator wants them to go with no independent or autonomous capabilities -- which is what a model airplane does.
A million true drones in the air under the model airplane scenario requires a million operators. So that is not likely the route that drones will take as the industry expands. Some will have to be autonomous -- given a mission so to speak and go do it. For example, photographing the South Mountain Reservation at a low altitude on a pre-determined flight path could be done without an operator directly controlling the machine. In this way, an operator could control several devices in the sense that if an emergency crops up, the operator steps in, but otherwise leaves it alone. Other examples could be to assess storm damage after a major event like Sandy -- have the devices fly a given grid over town, street by street, and provide a video documentary to the police and fire departments.
To control every drone for every instant it is in the air does require a lot of time and attention which most people beyond their teen years would not be inclined to do. But law enforcement and public safety will devote the time and money to monitor multiple drones. The Amazon drones, as an example, will not likely use an individual to fly it; rather there will be a control center where an operator may have a dozen drones the operator keeps track of but is not controlling its every movement. The Amazon drones will use GPS and some version of Google Maps or some such mapping program to know where it is.
I think that is how most uses of drones will evolve -- control centers with multiple devices under control of an operator. Yes, kids will fly them and probably will be able to program them. But the systematic use of drones will be public safety, some commercial operations like Amazon, and applications like traffic (replacing helicopters), engineering (inspection of individual sites, again replacing helicopters or low flying aircraft), environmental monitoring and so on.
The main differences now from the model airplane era are: (a) programmability of the machine so it can become autonomous, not unlike how automobiles will be in our children's lifetimes, (b) ability to carry lots of sensors and cameras whose output can be delivered in real time to an operator and computer.
A million true drones in the air under the model airplane scenario requires a million operators. So that is not likely the route that drones will take as the industry expands. Some will have to be autonomous -- given a mission so to speak and go do it. For example, photographing the South Mountain Reservation at a low altitude on a pre-determined flight path could be done without an operator directly controlling the machine. In this way, an operator could control several devices in the sense that if an emergency crops up, the operator steps in, but otherwise leaves it alone. Other examples could be to assess storm damage after a major event like Sandy -- have the devices fly a given grid over town, street by street, and provide a video documentary to the police and fire departments.
To control every drone for every instant it is in the air does require a lot of time and attention which most people beyond their teen years would not be inclined to do. But law enforcement and public safety will devote the time and money to monitor multiple drones. The Amazon drones, as an example, will not likely use an individual to fly it; rather there will be a control center where an operator may have a dozen drones the operator keeps track of but is not controlling its every movement. The Amazon drones will use GPS and some version of Google Maps or some such mapping program to know where it is.
I think that is how most uses of drones will evolve -- control centers with multiple devices under control of an operator. Yes, kids will fly them and probably will be able to program them. But the systematic use of drones will be public safety, some commercial operations like Amazon, and applications like traffic (replacing helicopters), engineering (inspection of individual sites, again replacing helicopters or low flying aircraft), environmental monitoring and so on.
The main differences now from the model airplane era are: (a) programmability of the machine so it can become autonomous, not unlike how automobiles will be in our children's lifetimes, (b) ability to carry lots of sensors and cameras whose output can be delivered in real time to an operator and computer.
We'll have a trillion dollars worth of drones flying around, and still Amtrak won't be able to get a train into Penn Station without it stalling.
Jan 1, 2014 at 7:08am Edited
First of all -Happy New Year!
Meanwhile, as we march into 2014 and beyond, like all new scientific advances I don't think that the fascinating miniaturization, computer-power and potential benefits of drones can be viewed outside the potential problems. I think it is certainly going to be interesting and a little disturbing at times. There seems to be a LOT of pent-up and quickly growing interest in all the uses (and misuses) of them so the future potential for conflict is great. Safety, privacy, trespass and even noise disturbance among them.
I was thinking about the New York story of my initial post and how if the guy on the sidewalk had been injured or even killed, -the loss to his family, the lawsuit that would result etc etc. If one schmuck already thinks it's cool to launch one from his apartment balcony there will certainly be many to follow.
I think the laws are going to be difficult to formulate and even more difficult to enforce given how the product, it's components and control devices are small, cheap and virtually impossible to trace except in the case of the New York idiot who actually had recorded his own apartment balcony and himself on the video card at the beginning of the flight.
In other words, -"control" in terms of responsible individuals with an adequate machine is possible, but proliferation and random crazy use, -not really likely. -That is going to be a problem and to other's point I think even "sanctioned " uses will create problems.
I see many YouTube drone videos on the horizon coming in high and low in formation.
Meanwhile, as we march into 2014 and beyond, like all new scientific advances I don't think that the fascinating miniaturization, computer-power and potential benefits of drones can be viewed outside the potential problems. I think it is certainly going to be interesting and a little disturbing at times. There seems to be a LOT of pent-up and quickly growing interest in all the uses (and misuses) of them so the future potential for conflict is great. Safety, privacy, trespass and even noise disturbance among them.
I was thinking about the New York story of my initial post and how if the guy on the sidewalk had been injured or even killed, -the loss to his family, the lawsuit that would result etc etc. If one schmuck already thinks it's cool to launch one from his apartment balcony there will certainly be many to follow.
I think the laws are going to be difficult to formulate and even more difficult to enforce given how the product, it's components and control devices are small, cheap and virtually impossible to trace except in the case of the New York idiot who actually had recorded his own apartment balcony and himself on the video card at the beginning of the flight.
In other words, -"control" in terms of responsible individuals with an adequate machine is possible, but proliferation and random crazy use, -not really likely. -That is going to be a problem and to other's point I think even "sanctioned " uses will create problems.
I see many YouTube drone videos on the horizon coming in high and low in formation.
Just keep in mind that when a manufacturer plasters the name "drone" on a machine that is really the same as model airplanes of 50 years ago -- things that fly and are remotely controlled -- it is largely a marketing thing. Adding in programming, sensors and cameras upgrade the device to something different. The word "drone" indicates something mindless and in the military sense, the drones are mindless -- the big Predator drones are remotely controlled, can fly huge distances for hours, can spy and are lethal. When you can program the device so it can fly on its own, make decisions, and return on its own to home base, then we are dealing with an entirely new system.
If the device is truly remotely controlled, then it is a larger version of a model airplane with tools for spying and picture taking. I hesitate to call the Predator a large model airplane, but it is remotely controlled and the system for controlling it is vastly beyond what model airplane guys do.
In the robotics club we compete in tournaments where each match has two parts: autonomous and controlled. In the autonomous mode the robot is capable of a number of moves which require it to make decisions based on inputs from the field -- in this year's competitions the robot needs to locate an infra-red sensor that can be in a number of locations and then execute a scoring option based on the sensor location. In the controlled part the robot is controlled by two team drivers -- one moving the machine (starting, stopping, turning, speeding up and slowing down) and one moving the arms and hoists and such. These controls are executed wirelessly and are analogous to how military drones are operated today - it flies and a pilot elsewhere controls it via signals that may bounce off a satellite (hence time delay is built in as the uplink video signal from the drone to the base and then the operator makes a decision and sends a signal back to the drone -- all this may take a second or two, perhaps longer.)
If the device is truly remotely controlled, then it is a larger version of a model airplane with tools for spying and picture taking. I hesitate to call the Predator a large model airplane, but it is remotely controlled and the system for controlling it is vastly beyond what model airplane guys do.
In the robotics club we compete in tournaments where each match has two parts: autonomous and controlled. In the autonomous mode the robot is capable of a number of moves which require it to make decisions based on inputs from the field -- in this year's competitions the robot needs to locate an infra-red sensor that can be in a number of locations and then execute a scoring option based on the sensor location. In the controlled part the robot is controlled by two team drivers -- one moving the machine (starting, stopping, turning, speeding up and slowing down) and one moving the arms and hoists and such. These controls are executed wirelessly and are analogous to how military drones are operated today - it flies and a pilot elsewhere controls it via signals that may bounce off a satellite (hence time delay is built in as the uplink video signal from the drone to the base and then the operator makes a decision and sends a signal back to the drone -- all this may take a second or two, perhaps longer.)
Jan 1, 2014 at 10:16am Edited
One take on the open/closed software issue that affects all of robotics as well as drones.
http://mashable.com/2014/01/01/us-law-robotics-future/
And an article on autonomous drones and other war-fighting robots:
http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=625&doc_id=270711&&_mc=MP_IW_EDT_STUB
http://mashable.com/2014/01/01/us-law-robotics-future/
And an article on autonomous drones and other war-fighting robots:
http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=625&doc_id=270711&&_mc=MP_IW_EDT_STUB
Hey Jude (sorry, couldn't resist that)
I'm wondering if, while concentrating on the science end of the drone stuff with your students are you also imagining discussing with them some of the present and future concerns on both an ethical (privacy etc) and legal scale. I'd be curious as to what they would say.
I'm wondering if, while concentrating on the science end of the drone stuff with your students are you also imagining discussing with them some of the present and future concerns on both an ethical (privacy etc) and legal scale. I'd be curious as to what they would say.
This morning there was a segment on new laws for 2014. I was still half asleep so I didn't get the State straight, but the law requires that local and state police get a court order before using a drone for surveillance because of privacy concerns. The state may have been Georgia, but as I indicated I was missing on a few cylinders when I heard to piece.
I just was perusing kits for drones and they are not complicated to build and fly, but the uses are limited to weird ones, IMO, unless you are in the fields of search and rescue.
http://www.xheli.com/spycamheli.html
http://www.xheli.com/spycamheli.html
Jan 2, 2014 at 12:50pm Edited
On the issue of privacy I have distributed numerous articles over the past several years on privacy, the NSA, Google and its own massive invasion of privacy, and the tons of other companies that are involved in buying and selling consumer data and one's own data. One article was from Wired on the massive complex the NSA is building in Utah. Another was the famous article on Target that was printed in the NYTimes Magazine a couple years ago.
Recently the enormous number of articles on Snowden and the NSA have tended to overwhelm the other equally and probably more pervasive privacy violations that come from the private sector via Google, Facebook, Twitter and the wireless providers. While the government collects and searches for terrorist patterns or other such things, Google et al do more than search -- they buy and sell the data for commercial transactions. These may or may not benefit the consumer but these guys know vastly more about you than the NSA does, and these guys want to know more and use the data whereas the NSA is largely uninterested in whether you like coke or pepsi. While the fear is that the gov't may use the data collected for some purpose or another that would curtail our freedoms, on a day-to-day basis Google et al do a much better job of attacking our privacy.
When time permits, I have collected a couple of hundred articles and many texts on privacy. A faint hope is to prepare a text aimed at high school kids which would be a set of readings on particular sub-topics followed by questions that (in theory!) provoke thinking. Faint hope.....
Recently the enormous number of articles on Snowden and the NSA have tended to overwhelm the other equally and probably more pervasive privacy violations that come from the private sector via Google, Facebook, Twitter and the wireless providers. While the government collects and searches for terrorist patterns or other such things, Google et al do more than search -- they buy and sell the data for commercial transactions. These may or may not benefit the consumer but these guys know vastly more about you than the NSA does, and these guys want to know more and use the data whereas the NSA is largely uninterested in whether you like coke or pepsi. While the fear is that the gov't may use the data collected for some purpose or another that would curtail our freedoms, on a day-to-day basis Google et al do a much better job of attacking our privacy.
When time permits, I have collected a couple of hundred articles and many texts on privacy. A faint hope is to prepare a text aimed at high school kids which would be a set of readings on particular sub-topics followed by questions that (in theory!) provoke thinking. Faint hope.....
A gadget for shooting ice balls at drones will no doubt make an appearance. Should be great fun.
Clearly you people don't read enough Philip K Dick.
The obvious potential here is in advertising.
Personalized, targeted advertising delivered directly to your eyes. Scuttling under your door while you sleep and then beaming the latest mix of promotions targeted directly at you based on harvested metadata about your activities and preferences. Whether you like it or not.
The obvious potential here is in advertising.
Personalized, targeted advertising delivered directly to your eyes. Scuttling under your door while you sleep and then beaming the latest mix of promotions targeted directly at you based on harvested metadata about your activities and preferences. Whether you like it or not.
Maybe training birds would help to control drones. Here's one attack:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzfiLmbhvqg
and another:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vyIVu8BtjM
and another one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsmp2aH7CjM
and this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3x1AwytB9c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzfiLmbhvqg
and another:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vyIVu8BtjM
and another one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsmp2aH7CjM
and this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3x1AwytB9c
Forbes: Two Drones Nearly Collide with NYPD Helicopter; Drone Operators Arrested
http://tinyurl.com/octw52a
http://tinyurl.com/octw52a
The August issue of Popular Science has a cover story: 25 Reasons to love drones and 5 reasons to fear them.
Reason #1: They'll soon be delivering your dinner.
A lot of the reasons are silly but some are more practical like using them for monitoring weather, endangered wildlife, wildfires and such.
The so-called reasons where you and I and everyone else uses one are a bit of a stretch. Most people cannot fly the older model airplanes and drones may be both simpler and harder at the same time. People generally flew model airplanes in open fields, away from residential structures. Not so with drones.
Look around a town like Maplewood or South Orange and the number of trees, telephone poles, wires for power, cable and landline phones, street lamps, the occasional cell tower, and traffic and street signs at lower heights and you have a mess. Not to mention the buildings themselves. Since the drone can move where the person on the ground cannot see it (around a corner for example) then we may have a bunch of accidents. Perhaps a large bunch of accidents.
Business applications are another matter. I still have my doubts that Dominos will fly them as drones -- operated centrally like the military flies its drones. If the drones are autonomous -- give the drone an address and it is translated into GPS and off it goes, then I think the problems become more severe. Drones move in 3-dimensional space, not 2-dimensional like a car. There is no comprehensive mapping of poles, signs, streetlamps, wires and the elevation of every wire (elevation from pole to pole and from pole to structure) so no easily pre-programmed path near the end point can be programmed in -- the drone has to navigate on its own through trees, wires, poles etc. This will take a lot of programing if autonomous and a lot of concentration if centrally controlled. And the bigger the drone (a pizza may be one thing, but a shipment of books from Amazon is another) the harder it is to navigate.
While a lot of drones will be out there, I tend to think that after the novelty of them wears off, the applications will settle down somewhat. I could be wrong -- maybe we will sit at home all day and fly these things and hope no one gets hurt.
The next hurdle is to get the drones to communicate with each other. Parrot has done this with the drones you can buy at Barnes and Noble. But they do it and have not opened the software so anyone can add an app to it. A big hurdle in autonomous automobiles is the communication between and among cars - the US Gov't is mandating such communication capabilities be done in 7-10 years from now for all new cars. Trust me -- if the skies are filled with moving objects not just stationary objects like trees and poles, the programming grows more complex. It would mitigate against individuals trying to fly them remotely and force the drones into autonomous mode.
Of course privacy issues ramp up significantly, and not just issues involving the police.
This is the web site for Popular Science but the current issue is not up yet:
http://www.popsci.com/
Reason #1: They'll soon be delivering your dinner.
A lot of the reasons are silly but some are more practical like using them for monitoring weather, endangered wildlife, wildfires and such.
The so-called reasons where you and I and everyone else uses one are a bit of a stretch. Most people cannot fly the older model airplanes and drones may be both simpler and harder at the same time. People generally flew model airplanes in open fields, away from residential structures. Not so with drones.
Look around a town like Maplewood or South Orange and the number of trees, telephone poles, wires for power, cable and landline phones, street lamps, the occasional cell tower, and traffic and street signs at lower heights and you have a mess. Not to mention the buildings themselves. Since the drone can move where the person on the ground cannot see it (around a corner for example) then we may have a bunch of accidents. Perhaps a large bunch of accidents.
Business applications are another matter. I still have my doubts that Dominos will fly them as drones -- operated centrally like the military flies its drones. If the drones are autonomous -- give the drone an address and it is translated into GPS and off it goes, then I think the problems become more severe. Drones move in 3-dimensional space, not 2-dimensional like a car. There is no comprehensive mapping of poles, signs, streetlamps, wires and the elevation of every wire (elevation from pole to pole and from pole to structure) so no easily pre-programmed path near the end point can be programmed in -- the drone has to navigate on its own through trees, wires, poles etc. This will take a lot of programing if autonomous and a lot of concentration if centrally controlled. And the bigger the drone (a pizza may be one thing, but a shipment of books from Amazon is another) the harder it is to navigate.
While a lot of drones will be out there, I tend to think that after the novelty of them wears off, the applications will settle down somewhat. I could be wrong -- maybe we will sit at home all day and fly these things and hope no one gets hurt.
The next hurdle is to get the drones to communicate with each other. Parrot has done this with the drones you can buy at Barnes and Noble. But they do it and have not opened the software so anyone can add an app to it. A big hurdle in autonomous automobiles is the communication between and among cars - the US Gov't is mandating such communication capabilities be done in 7-10 years from now for all new cars. Trust me -- if the skies are filled with moving objects not just stationary objects like trees and poles, the programming grows more complex. It would mitigate against individuals trying to fly them remotely and force the drones into autonomous mode.
Of course privacy issues ramp up significantly, and not just issues involving the police.
This is the web site for Popular Science but the current issue is not up yet:
http://www.popsci.com/
Article on using drones at weddings:
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/the-rise-of-the-wedding-drone/374655/
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/the-rise-of-the-wedding-drone/374655/
I actually have built a couple and am working on one now 
fun to build and even more fun to fly. The best is FPV (first person video) -- you basically hook up a camera to a transmitter that transmits live video to a set of goggles you wear as you fly it -- totally immersive experience 
In terms of privacy, sure if you start flying over people's pools while they're sunbathing or start spying on your neighbors, then probably you should be getting in trouble, but most people do it for the fun of building it and flying, or for work (as in aerial photography for events)
In terms of safety, there have been some incidents and if you fly near an airport at a certain altitude then you are expected to call it in to get clearance, but there are currently no other restrictions.
fun to build and even more fun to fly. The best is FPV (first person video) -- you basically hook up a camera to a transmitter that transmits live video to a set of goggles you wear as you fly it -- totally immersive experience In terms of privacy, sure if you start flying over people's pools while they're sunbathing or start spying on your neighbors, then probably you should be getting in trouble, but most people do it for the fun of building it and flying, or for work (as in aerial photography for events)
In terms of safety, there have been some incidents and if you fly near an airport at a certain altitude then you are expected to call it in to get clearance, but there are currently no other restrictions.
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Not the big-boy drones that we are used to seeing in stories about "drone strikes" over faraway places but little ones that only cost a couple hundred bucks or that can be built easily from scratch. Yes, there are many good uses for them, -search and rescue, farmers monitoring their land, traffic reports, amazing photography etc. -Because of that I see their proliferation as inevitable, -but with what benefits and consequences?
I've been noticing the steady rise in the number of stories about these things over the last several months including yesterday's story about six states approved for "testing" (presumably of all sizes?)
These things are going to be everywhere soon. I see much good-news/bad-news coming out of this including many weird and unforeseen stories. Many drones will be (are already) able to be controlled by your smartphone. Skynet? Orwellian monitoring? Terrorists? Shooting them down from the ground, ya know, for fun? Many accidents?
Am curious about what others think.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/02/drone-crash-new-york-city_n_4033566.html