Everything Drones

Virginia Tech is a player in a potential federal drone test range. Meanwhile, the university is doing its own research — and drone is not the preferred term.

BLACKSBURG — With nearby airports notified that an unusual aircraft was about to take off, a drone rose from a Montgomery County field March 9.

The unmanned helicopter climbed to a training altitude of about 130 feet and roamed a few miles outside Blacksburg.

Drones aren’t only prowling the Middle East to try and incinerate terrorists. They fly over such American communities as the New River Valley.

http://www.roanoke.com/news/nrv/1781625-12/the-skys-the-limit-for-drone-research-at.html

Domestic drones will soon be soaring through the sky left and right, but a company in Oregon with ties to the US military is marketing a service that they say will make sure private property is safe from surveillance.

The team at one-month-old Domestic Drone Countermeasures doesn’t go into many specifics, but says they can offer services that will make sure Americans aren’t being spied on by hovering eyes in the sky.

“If there’s going to be private and commercial drones, there will be people who want to safeguard information,” DDC’s Tim Faucett told Portland’s KOIN 6 News last month. “Think about industrial espionage, or companies that don’t want drones around their facilities.”

http://libertycrier.com/tech/anti-drone-devices-for-sale-military-contractor-claims-to-have-counter-uav-technology/

As domestic government agencies scramble to send up unmanned aircraft to patrol and monitor, concerns about the rights of those being watched are being left behind.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/government-499980-drone-society.html

WASHINGTON (CBS) – Your neighbors’ fences are no longer tall enough.

While President Obama takes flak for the US’s use of unmanned drone attacks abroad, there is a smaller, smartphone-controlled drone hovering above urban rooftops and suburban backyards: The Parrot AR Drone 2.0.

The Parrot AR Drone 2.0, listed on Amazon just below $300, is the best way to live out one’s fantasy of being a spy. The miniature drone is controlled through your iPhone or iPad and features multiple sensors, including a hi-definition front-facing 720-pixel camera and a vertical camera looking straight down from the bottom of the miniature quadricopter (four propellers).

http://washington.cbslocal.com/2012/08/10/domestic-spying-mini-drone-can-watch-neighbors-from-above/