The Dark Side of Drones Big Brother in Germany's Skies

[xchrom]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/increased-drone-use-triggers-privacy-worries-in-germany-a-858003.html


Here, a drone is used to make a commemorative DVD at the Wacken Open Air heavy metal festival in northern Germany in August 2012. Drones carry cameras and video recorders, infrared sensors, measuring devices and radar technology. High-tech models are now available from mail-order electronics stores, as are do-it-yourself quadrocopters.


It's the first Thursday in August, and the air above Wacken, a town in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, is filled with the shrill screeching of electric guitars and the rhythmic hammering of drums. On the stage below, the band Sepultura is getting fans in the mood for the world's biggest heavy metal festival.

A small, remote-controlled aircraft, a drone, rises up into the gray, cloud-filled sky. Each of the four arms of the round device, a quadrocopter, is equipped with spinning rotors, and a camera is attached to the bottom. The camera is about to document the festivities on the ground for the Wacken commemorative DVD, which is already a tradition. The festival organizer thought it would be a nice idea to try filming from the air this time.
At first, the eye in the sky, with a diameter of one meter (about 3 feet), hovers unnoticed above the crowd. But then the first fans discover the strange object and beginning expressing their outrage over the eerie observer by sticking their fists and middle fingers into the air. They become increasingly hostile, and soon shoes and beer cans are flying through the air, aimed at the drone.

Frustrated, the drone pilot steers the device, an AR 100-B, out of the danger zone.

[dipsydoodle]

1. Catapult would take one one those down.

Dunno if they're still about or not but the old Diablos could puncture a Mercedes wing and still crack its block using a ball bearing for ammo - or so I was told by those who did such things.

[Demeter]

2. Thanks! I shall have to develop a new skill!