Tiny Police Helicopter is Watching You
Tue, Mar 11, 2008
Environmental Graffiti Will be Changing Dramatically Soon. Get a Sneak Preview By Signing Up Here.
One of the best things about living in the 21st century is all the cool new gadgets.
An armada of microdrones. Image from Bot Junkie
My favourite new discovery is a toy-sized helicopter that’s the latest in police technology.
The “microdrone” may be small, but for police it’s a powerful new weapon. It’s equipped with an array of technological weaponry, including video and infrared cameras. Images from the camera can be beamed to operators as far as 500 yards away. It even flies almost completely silently.
My personal favourite accessory is the squirt gun. The chopper comes equipped with a squirt gun filled with “SmartWater”, a liquid that police can use to help identify criminals who’ve come in contact with it.
I was expecting this piece of futuristic machinery to be used in some sort of government covert op, flying silently above mafia meetings taking pictures and the like. I was completely wrong.
So far, the device is being used by the British Transport police, the ones in charge of trains, buses and the like. It’s been helping them catch people stealing pieces of metal from the railways.
The police may be in love with the stealthy little machine, but there’s been some online uproar. Bloggers have been pointing out that a silent flying machine with high-powered cameras has the potential for abuse. They argue that both the police and anyone who can afford the $50,000 to buy one could easily look in their windows and snoop on their personal lives. With a viewing range of almost 350 feet, they might have a point.
Story from Times of India
Environmental Graffiti is up for four bloggers choice awards. You can vote for us for best entertainment blog, best blog of all time, best geek blog and best animal blogger.
If you want to find out all the latest news on the environment, why not subcribe to our RSS feed? We’ll even throw in a free album.
You Might Also Like Our Friends' Posts From the Intertubes
“The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else.”
March 11th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Can’t wait to see the next headline: “Privacy-loving American first to shoot down police drone patrolling his neighborhood”.
March 11th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
I have seen this machine and its cousins working. True they are silent lurkers but please … why would anyone in their right mind want to snoop on yours or my personal lives? Even if the police eventually get 100 of these tiny 30 minute duration craft how many of the 68 Million population are going to be in danger? And for how long? Just make sure all your naughty antics last more than 30 minutes!