Thread: Interesting article

Found completely by accident. Not sure if it should be here in the technology section or in the Off the Servers board. My first thought was the police force now potentially have a long lasting UAV?

You can skim it, or you can start thinking of the longer range implications/impact. I'm not sure what I think yet. Anyway, here, have a link. The picture reminds me of a UAV in 2142.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/scie...e/4234272.html

Houston Cops’ Test Drone Now in Iraq, Operator Says

The Houston Police Department wasn’t planning on announcing its unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) test program. But when a local news team from KPRC caught the drone on camera on Nov. 16, the department reluctantly released some information, however skimpy. The FAA-approved test took place within a 2-mile radius 45 miles west of Houston, and involved a single fixed-wing drone. The aircraft was remote-controlled from the ground by operators from Washington-based Insitu, Inc., which had also built the UAV.

Now, Insitu has confirmed that the model used in the test was the Insight, a 44-pound, long-endurance drone with a 10.2-ft. wingspan—one that’s currently used by both the Marines and the Navy in Iraq.

The Insight can be equipped with a standard electro-optical camera, as well as an infrared camera, mounted on an inertially stabilized turret. This is a straightforward recon drone, able to operate without a runway, using Insitu’s SuperWedge Launcher for takeoffs and the company’s Skyhook Retrieval System for landings. The Insight aircraft used by the Navy—marketed as ScanEagles—are capable of autonomous flight, but it’s not clear whether those functions were part of the recent test in Texas.

Until that flight, and an announcement on Tuesday by the Miami-Dade Police Department that it would begin its own FAA-approved tests of Honeywell’s Micro Air Vehicle next year, the use of drones by law enforcement has been limited. In 2006, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department conducted a test using a tiny, hand-launched UAV, but the FAA grounded the program immediately. And police in the United Kingdom are currently field-testing small, rotor-propelled drones.

But if the Insight is approved for use by Houston’s cops, it could put those other UAVs to shame, with the ability to take off and land autonomously, and stay airborne for 20 hours or longer, with a top speed of 86 mph and a maximum altitude of 19,500 ft. It could also pose serious legal questions, since its daylight camera’s range is listed at 100 km, with, according to Insitu, “an acuity about 50 percent better than that of the unaided eye at the telescopic end.” Search and surveillance warrants aren’t required for helicopters, but when a robot is scanning your bedroom from miles away, the prospect of plain-view seizures takes on new meaning.

This month’s Insight demonstration might not lead to anything—Insitu claims that the Houston police won’t be deploying UAVs in the near future, and that regulations still need to be developed to fully integrate drones into civilian airspace. But that won’t stop you—or us—from peering out from behind the blinds, scanning the skies for the robots scanning back.

Well, this and later will be either bar codes or computer chips under our skin when were born so we never get away with anything.

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