http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/07/28/253223/us-developing-robot-mosquito-spy-drones/
Reports indicate the US military has poured huge sums of money into surveillance drone miniaturization and is developing micro aircraft which now come in a swarm of bug-sized flying spies.
According to various internet sources, a team of researchers at the Johns Hopkins University in conjunction with the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Arlington, Virginia, is helping develop what they are calling a micro aerial vehicle (MAV) that will undertake various espionage tasks.
The robotic insect can effortlessly infiltrate urban areas, where dense concentrations of buildings and people, along with unpredictable winds and other obstacles make it impractical.
It can be controlled from a great distance and is equipped with a camera and a built-in microphone.
The new device has the capability to land precisely on human skin, use its super-micron sized needle to take DNA samples and fly off again at speed. All people feel is the pain of a mosquito bite without the burning sensation and the swelling of course.
The hard-to-detect surveillance drone can also inject a micro radio frequency identification (RFID) tracking device right under skin, and can be used to inject toxins into enemies during wars.
As early as in 2007, the US government was accused of secretly developing robotic insect spies when anti-war protesters in the United States saw some flying objects similar to dragonflies or little helicopters hovering above them.
The US is not alone in miniaturizing drones that imitate nature: France, the Netherlands and Israel are also developing similar devices.
France has developed flapping wing bio-inspired micro drones. The Netherlands BioMAV (Biologically Inspired AI for Micro Aerial Vehicles) has also built Parrot AR drones.
Meanwhile, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has produced a butterfly-shaped drone, weighing just 20 grams, which can gather intelligence inside buildings.
The insect drone, with its 0.15-gram camera and memory card, is managed remotely with a special helmet. Putting on the helmet, the operator finds themselves in the “butterfly’s cockpit” and virtually sees what the butterfly sees in real time.
[end article]
The potential for this kind of technology is endless, not just for surveillance, but for the drones ability to inject toxins and take DNA samples.
Although most people would think that the first option is scarier, I actually think it's the second use that is far more dangerous.
Having a copy of someones genome allows you to look for inherited diseases as well as genetic quirks that make people more susceptible to certain toxins.
It's a shame that there is such a military bent to this whole project. Imagine if they made drones that went around collecting DNA samples randomly from unidentified people for epidemiological research.
Of course, I wouldn't put it past the American health care giants to buy a few of these to get DNA off those who are reluctant to give a sample, thus allowing them to refuse cover to people who have just the possibility of developing a genetic disease, even if the disease never develops. I mean, just because someone has a gene that gives them a 25% higher risk of getting say, heart cancer, that doesn't mean that they will get heart cancer, but it does mean that your health insurance premiums will be much higher, if you can even get insurance.
Of course, there are bound to be some serious drawbacks to this technology, the most obvious one being jamming the frequency that the drones communicate on. There has been talk to trying to get around this using radar or lidar, but as far as I know, this is confined to science fiction, which means that the controller will still communicate to the drone via radio, which can be jammed, or blocked by buildings, etc.
According to some in the hacker community, with $1000 USD of equipment and enough brain power, you can take over a remote drone. With these drones coming into use in urban areas in the US, I'm sure that many of the people will be very interesting in keeping the drones from invading their privacy.
Perhaps they should hack a drone and get it to spy on the people authorising these laws and see how they like it. Of course, as they always say 'If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to be afraid of' , but the law is now so complex that they can arrest you for virtually anything. The long and short of it being if they want to get you, they will be able to find some law you have broken as a pretext to screw you over.
I really wish George Orwell was still alive to write a book about what is going on in our times. I bet it would be an awesome read... =)
Christoper Carrion.
No comments:
Post a Comment