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Diminutive Device to Detect Drones Hovering Overhead


Monroe

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But still, you will not need a tiny device to detect these :ph34r: :

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2281403/U-S-Air-Force-developing-terrifying-swarms-tiny-unmanned-drones-hover-crawl-kill-targets.html

BTW the idea of recharging batteries from power lines is IMHO great! :thumbup

And they can be lethal, not completely unlike ninja cats :w00t: :

ninja-cat-2_tackyraccoons.jpg?w=450&h=36

ninjas1.jpg

@duffy98

JFYI, that dragonfly is not the same dragonfly as the one you talked about previously.

jaclaz

Edited by jaclaz
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Well jaclaz, as rloew posted in another thread under Windows 9x ... "Since you just love to nitpick. Show me where any of us said it is the ONLY way." ... with emphasis on the word "nitpick" ! :thumbup

I actually got my 6 inch thick magnifying glass out and checked both images ... they look pretty close to me ... maybe a different name. ... but the price matches and the images look the same at two different angles.

1st mention:

http://theawesomer.com/dragonfly-drone/206931/

2nd mention:

http://www.geek.com/news/this-tiny-robotic-dragonfly-drone-only-costs-119-1533241/

Oh well, no matter ... all in good fun! ... I will let others be the judge. This is all new stuff and rapidly changing as I see it. We can all joke about it now but in the future some (or many) may not find it so funny.

...

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The entry below is from the Oxford English Dictionary. Please notice the dates of the quotes for the use of interest. It's clear that it must have started as part of military jargon from WWII and slowly gained some foothold in general usage from that point. However, while it was just a concept, devoid of reality, it never became an important sense to "drone", until very recently. Things have changed already: they do exist, operate and can kill. Next step is to miniaturize (which procedure enhances their threat and/or paranoia potential)!

drone, n1

2. fig. b. A pilotless aircraft or missile directed by remote control. Also attrib.

1946 in Amer. Speech (1947) XXII. 228/2 The Navy's drones will be led — by radio control, of course — to a landing field at Roi. Ibid., The drone planes. 1947 Britannica Bk. of Yr. 840/2 Drone, a plane handled by remote control from a control or mother ship. 1958 Illustr. London News 10 May 770/3 The C-130 will be adapted for the launching and direction of drone missiles. 1966 M. Woodhouse Tree Frog iii. 26 Nobody in their right minds would fly a drone out into that sort of radar cover. Ibid. v. 41 A long-range, high-altitude drone surveillance aircraft. 1970 Daily Tel. 7 Jan. 4 Unmanned spy aircraft—drones—are to be developed by the American armed services.

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Well jaclaz, as rloew posted in another thread under Windows 9x ... "Since you just love to nitpick. Show me where any of us said it is the ONLY way." ... with emphasis on the word "nitpick" ! :thumbup

Maybe there is a misunderstanding. :)

We earlier talked about the Festo BionicOpter dragonfly, which you mentioned on post #6 of this thread as 1st item, and that I referenced in post #7 as "Bionicopter dragonfly".

If you prefer in post #6 you gave links to two different "dragonfly" projects, one by Festo and one by Techjet, and later I posted about the (relatively big) size of the Festo one.

In post #15 you posted about the second (Techjet) much smaller device and it's price.

jaclaz

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All in good fun .... no matter. Things are changing as posts are added. Now there is "dancing with the drones"

Dances With Drones

Dancing with drones demonstrates robotic integration into human world.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/05/15/dance-company-incorporates-drones-into-performance

... This Drone Can Fit In Your Palm

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2013/02/this-drone-can-fit-in-your-palm/

The Norwegian-manufactured machines currently rank as the world’s smallest military-grade spy drone, weighing just 16 grams and measuring at 4 inches long. Dubbed the Black Hornet, the sneaky little choppers carry just a steerable camera that takes still and video images.

Now this is interesting ... I have been thinking of small flying drones but just how big can a flying drone be? I missed this drone special that aired January 23, 2013 on PBS, the show Nova.

Program Description:

Drones ... These unmanned flying robots–some as large as jumbo jets, others as small as birds.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/military/rise-of-the-drones.html

I hadn't given much thought to how large an actual drone might be ... some as large as jumbo jets.

...

Edited by duffy98
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Large drones present very-few to no technological challenges at this point in time, since the onboard remote-control and/or guidance-AI are necessarily relatively not very heavy and conventional fuels very energy efficient at those scales. A mosquito-sized drone would need to have most or all of its guidance-AI off-board and a very tiny, almost weightless, remote control unit. That's feasible, although very difficult. But the only energy source efficient enough to have it flying and doing anything useful at all for at least some minutes would be a stasis-field trapped Kamehameha (viz. かめはめ波) orb, or the like, which is, of course, beyond science.

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Now it would be the right time to get some tacos delivered to you by a drone :thumbup :

http://tacocopter.com/

BUT :(:

sadly the the Government isn't going to let it happen :(:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/23/tacocopter-startup-delivers-tacos-by-unmanned-drone-helicopter_n_1375842.html

So, there you have it: The U.S. government is single-handedly preventing you from ordering a taco and having it delivered to you by a totally sweet pilot-less helicopter. So get out your pitchforks, sign those petitions, start calling your local lawmakers, and let them know: We want our tacos hurled at us by giant buzzing robotic helicopters, and we want them now.

Let's do this, America: Together, we can team up and make a future with Tacocopters a reality today.

jaclaz

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The entry below is from the Oxford English Dictionary. Please notice the dates of the quotes for the use of interest. It's clear that it must have started as part of military jargon from WWII and slowly gained some foothold in general usage from that point.

This source:

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=drone

drone (n.)

Old English dran, dræn "male honeybee," from Proto-Germanic *dran- (cf. Middle Dutch drane; Old High German treno; German Drohne, which is from Middle Low German drone), probably imitative; given a figurative sense of "idler, lazy worker" (male bees make no honey) 1520s. Meaning "pilotless aircraft" is from 1946.

Drones, as the radio-controlled craft are called, have many potentialities, civilian and military. Some day huge mother ships may guide fleets of long-distance, cargo-carrying airplanes across continents and oceans. Long-range drones armed with atomic bombs could be flown by accompanying mother ships to their targets and in for perfect hits. ["Popular Science," November, 1946]

Meaning "deep, continuous humming sound" is early 16c., apparently imitative (cf. threnody). The verb in the sound sense is early 16c.; it often is the characteristic sound of airplane engines. Related: Droned; droning.

suggests that it has an onomatopeic origin and quotes Popular Science Magazine as source in 1946.

BUT, here there is a somehow more convincing ehtimology/history:

http://usmilitary.about.com/od/militaryhumor/a/words.htm

DRONE. A drone is a collective name for pilotless aircraft. But original meaning was and is 'the male of the honeybee and other bees'. This particular kind of the insect through clear associations was connected with such notions as 'one who lives on the labor of others', 'an idler', 'a sluggard'.

These associations underlie the transfer of the meaning to an aircraft which was steered by remote control without a pilot. Initially, pilotless aircraft were used as air targets for training AA gun crews. These targets were marked with black stripes along the tail part of the fuselage. These stripes looked like those of a drone (the insect). Hence, the nickname. Nowadays pilotless aircraft are distinguished as drones and RPVs (remotely-piloted vehicles). Drones are program-guided while RPVs are piloted from a distance by operators. It is curious to know that bomber air crews called jokingly air gunners 'drones'. Probably because air gunners were idle during flights and had only lots of things to do when firing at enemy fighters.

And now, for NO apparent reason, xkcd! :thumbup

http://xkcd.com/1010/

etymology_man.png

Is it a bird?

Is it an airplane?

Is it a drone?

No, it's etimology-man!

:lol:

jaclaz

Edited by jaclaz
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BUT, here there is a somehow more convincing ehtimology/history:

http://usmilitary.about.com/od/militaryhumor/a/words.htm

DRONE. [...] Initially, pilotless aircraft were used as air targets for training AA gun crews. These targets were marked with black stripes along the tail part of the fuselage. These stripes looked like those of a drone (the insect). Hence, the nickname. Nowadays pilotless aircraft are distinguished as drones and RPVs (remotely-piloted vehicles). Drones are program-guided while RPVs are piloted from a distance by operators.[...]

Bravo! clapping.gif

That makes sense as the origin of the meaning, and comes from military use as expected (and is probably pre-1946, of course, since by 1946 the usage was so widespread it leaked into common usage).

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That makes sense as the origin of the meaning, and comes from military use as expected (and is probably pre-1946, of course, since by 1946 the usage was so widespread it leaked into common usage).

Yep, and additionally I have an actual pic, the interesting part being that some were yellow with black stripes:

http://www.bombercommandmuseum.ca/lysander.html

225 Lysanders were built in Canada by National Steel Car of Toronto. Many were painted in distinctive yellow and black stripes and used primarily as target drone tugs at Bombing and Gunnery schools of the BCATP.

p_lysander2.jpg

You cannot actually look at it and not think to a bee or wasp or drone. :thumbup

See also the PIA (no, not a PITA ;)) for google drones bugs:

http://amberhawk.typepad.com/amberhawk/2013/04/data-collected-by-googles-drones-for-3d-streetview-service-is-compliant-with-european-data-protection-law.html

The 3D StreetView Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) appended to Google’s Privacy Policy, shows how it complies with European Data Protection laws. For instance, to ensure maximum transparency of data collection, the drones are to be repainted in wasp-like reflective yellow and black stripes and to be fitted with loudspeakers.

The Assessment recommends that the drones should not be silent and “should emit a suitable sound, something like the low frequency buzz of a Doodlebug” (a reference to the Nazi V1 flying bomb). Other suggestions for a sound is the continual emission of the Morse Code for Google to identify the data controller (“--.” : “---“ : “---“ : “--.” : “.-..” and “.”)

The PIA does not call its drones, “GoogleBugs” but I am sure that this name is likely to catch on as Google develops its drone functionality. However, the PIA does recommend that the drone’s facility to intercept satellite communications is switched off “to avoid issues similar to the capture of WiFi logon-details by StreeView camera cars”.

jaclaz

Edited by jaclaz
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Hooray jaclaz and dencorso for digging out the history of the term drone. I like military films and I seem to now remember maybe one or two mentioning something about a drone. I will keep my ears tuned better when I watch some older films from the 40's or from that time era, if they were made later. The picture really looks like a yellow jacket wasp just for an instant.

All About Yellow Jackets, Bees and Their Kin

http://www.gardeners.com/Yellow-Jackets/7700,default,pg.html

... some additional history ... they seem to have started in development shortly after WW One ... that's really early but the term drone came along later.

Early US Target Drones

http://www.vectorsite.net/twuav_01.html

The first pilotless aircraft, intended for use as "aerial torpedoes" or what we would now call "cruise missiles", were built during and shortly after World War I, and led to the development of radio-controlled (RC) pilotless target aircraft in Britain and the US in the 1930s. In 1931, the British developed the Fairey "Queen" radio-controlled target from the Fairey IIIF floatplane, building a batch of three, and in 1935 followed up this experiment by producing larger numbers of another RC target, the "DH.82B Queen Bee", derived from the de Havilland Tiger Moth biplane trainer. Through some convoluted path, the name of "Queen Bee" is said to have led to the use of the term "drone" for remote-controlled aircraft.

...

Edited by duffy98
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Drones are a waste of money. People used to do things like this with remote controlled helicopters. All I see here, are helicopters, using Harrier technology, in the consumer hands. Makes me think about dangerous a drone could be, especially if it has Wi-fi built into it. I am talking about somebody snooping your location, with a helicopter/ghetto-bird.

Imagine if the law changed slightly against men especially. That is a direct violation of your privacy. We are not talking about things like, drugs, weapons, money, etc. I am talking about somebody who is not even aware they are breaking any law at all, and are in the business of their own privacy.

Police are not going to be chasing down kidnappers, murders, or money laundering operations with this thing in the near future. They are going to be targeting you. By you I mean anybody who can read this, and thinks they are minding their own business. Think about what a drone with a Wi-Fi connection could do harm to a harmless person.

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Think about what a drone with a Wi-Fi connection could do harm to a harmless person.

Nothing that "they" cannot already do by tapping your DSL or cable.

In case of need:

http://reboot.pro/topic/13177-an-improved-electromagnetical-shielding-device/

quite effective, besides aliens, against mind reading drones "they" may send to spy on you.

jaclaz

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So the fatherland security service is spying on us with itty-bitty drones? What should I do? Get my own Linux-controlled drone-lets and shoot them down? What if vaterland sicherheitsdienst sends even bigger drones? Can you just swat them with your tennis racquet?

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Can you just swat them with your tennis racquet?

Yes, in theory, but you would much safer using an Electric Fly Swatter, example:

electric-fly-swatter-desc.jpg

The "deluxe" version features rechargeable batteries and double ups as a torch:

HYD-44.jpg

(you should have a torch to detect non-flying drones, like drone caterpillars and ants ;) )

jaclaz

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