Are Insect Robots Spying On Anti-War Protesters?
The Washington Post reports that anti-war protesters in Washington, D.C., and New York claim to have seen FLYING INSECT SPY ROBOTS hovering over the crowds. The article then goes on to provide a really nice snapshot of the state of mini-drone research (almost all of which are the size of large birds, not tiny insects). This is red meat for the tinfoil hat people. Despite FBI denials, the idea that the government is using insect robot technology to spy on protesters will probably become part of the "conventional wisdom" among paranoid conspiracy theorists. Here's why the sightings are false: 1) the technology for insect-size drones isn't deployable yet; 2) if it was, the data gleaned would be inferior to cameras and microphones you could get at Best Buy (you don't need insect drones in an easy-to-access place like American cities); 3) if the "government" had the technology, it wouldn't waste it on a bunch of middle-class citizens wandering around with anti-war posters -- it would be used in Tehran or Iraq. For the same reason that nobody sighted UFOs until humans started flying into space, and that only religious fanatics see Jesus's face in their pancakes, people who have heard about robotic insect research are jumping to the conclusion that the dragonflies they saw are really government drones.
4:48 AM * PERMALINK * 12 comments
Comments:
where's your imagination??
The government is actually using mockups of robot insects and throwing them into the crowd to give the illusion that they have this technology. It's like the government intentionally leaking reports of UFOs in order to give the illusion that they're competent enough to cover up something that huge.
Protesters concerned that their picture is being taken, I thought the point was to get your picture taken so people know how you feel about the subject?
stupid children.
This type of article is an insult to humanity.
go break open those funny black square things in your computer and try this bullshit about size again.
then tell me about BBC poly threads that kill people.
"Large Dragonflies"? Tiny Helicopters?
Sounds like some protest goers have been to their local Radio Shack.
http://www.radioshack.com/category/index.jsp?categoryId=2032402&cp=2032062
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2585632&cp=2032062.2032402.2032406&parentPage=family
No, they're out there. I've seen them! I even squished one. It had my blood in it, so I can only assume that it was trying to take a DNA sample. It was too mangled after the squishing to tell what it was originally, but we all knew ...
Good link. You got this one hours before Drudge decided to pick it up.
I feel bad for some of the USA's anti-war protestors.. I went to school with them!
My one friend is convinced that the government is reading his mind with cell phones, so he refuses to answer ANY phones.
His girlfriend is convinced that the government is using microwaves to alter the country's DNA.
Heck, my Ex- girlfriend's uncle was convinced that the Govermnent was harboring interstellar aliens, and was injecting evil thoughts into his head via telephone lines.
He was arrested by the FBI for trying to kill Ronald Regan.
My point is, this is sad, really.... although it would be AWESOME if possible...
Face it, the government already has cameras in space that can see what hair product I use, so who cares, anyway?
I'm not a protester but I did show up to part of the latest DC anti-war protest where I actually did see a large dragonfly sort of thing flying around unnaturally. I pointed it out and we watched it fly around (it really was huge) until it finally left.
I dismissed my suspicions, but seeing this story brings them back, though I still don't think it was anything since I'm not prone to conspiracy theories.
In response to the argument that existing technologies are better, I'd say no. The crowd I was in was unreachable and hidden in trees. The police keep a super-low profile near the White House, so a drone would be perfect.
But yeah, it's all just BS in the end..
NPR Here and Now radio program has a report today (Oct 11) about law enforcement use of UAV...
http://www.here-now.org/shows/2007/10/20071011_9.asp
If, as the article says, the CIA had a prototype in the 1970s, why 30 years later could they not have a successful design?
>>Defense Department documents describe nearly 100 different models in use today; 160,000 flight hours
And that's just the public information...
And why would they deploy such technology or prototypes against american protestors?
More than likely they're testing them, and that offers a cheap and easy way to do it. Or, these things are always out there (wouldn't surprise me), and they were watching the protest.
As for the quality of information these items could return, the onboard camera video via the Washington Post confirms the capacity. Add in higher quality optics and image stabilization, and it's very useful.
Some of Nikon's more recent VR-enabled lenses offer an 'Active Mode' that is intended to be used when shooting from a moving vehicle, such as a car or boat;
Digital image stabilization is used in some video cameras. This technique shifts the electronic image from frame to frame of video, enough to counteract the motion
All that being noted, it can be difficult to gauge size against the sky, so these things might not be as tiny as some people thought they were.
Personally, I don't mind these items being used to monitor public spaces and gatherings. There's nothing really wrong about that...it's out in public.
You mentioned this phrase from the article "Defense Department documents describe nearly 100 different models in use today" without pasting in the rest of the sentence, which is: "some as tiny as birds, and some the size of small planes."
The number of functional Dragon Fly size drones "in use today" is zero.
This article is a classic, textbook case of how you can use facts to lie. They basically say:
* A few random people think they kinda sorta saw some weird bug that looked kinda sorta like a flying robot
* "America can be pretty sneaky"
* We had some kind of concept device as far back at the 70s (which never worked)
* There are hundreds of mini drones (several times larger than the "sighted" dragon fly robot drones.
By the time the skimmer finishes the article, they believe in the idea of the government spying on protesters with flying insect robot drones more than the people who kinda sorta thought they mighta seen something.
Don't buy it.
Mike Elgan
the article says they were 'large for dragonflys' not dragonfly-sized
talk about selective reading...
maybe they were this big:
picture of tiny toy helicopter
Japanese toy giant Tomy says it's about to roll out the next generation in tiny copters
I mean look at the size (or lack thereof) of that thing...and it's a toy.
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