Hovering Surveillance In UK

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The UK is known for having a gajillion surveillance cameras everywhere but this hovering quad-prop camera takes the cake. If it doesn’t work out as a spy plane, I'll bet they could sell them to R/C hobbyist in a heartbeat.

Merseyside police are using the "spy drone", fitted with CCTV cameras, mainly for tackling anti-social behaviour and public disorder. The machine is 1m wide, weighs less than a bag of sugar, and can record images from a height of 500m.
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It's disconcerting when I hear about military equipment being used against ones own citizens. Talk about an icy chill down one's back. brrrr! :eek:
 
my spacecraft dynamics professor brought in a quad prop RC helicopter to class one day that his family bought him.

It only cost about $1000. There was also a camera attachment available for another $500 or so, but the family didn't get it for him.

Anyway, point being, stuff like that is already available to the RC crowd.
 
I can't see this as being a practical 24/7 operation. I see this more as an added security measure during events, rallies, games, or any larger gathering... which gives the police an extra eye in the sky where there might naturally not be many cameras capturing the area.

People always freak out when they hear of things like this, but keep in mind, even protesters brings thier own cameras to a protest so they can watch eachother.
 
load of crap - got assaulted (UK) on Saturday and police were already there. A CCTV camera recorded the whole incident. They (the Crown Prosecution Service) decided not to prosecute due to insufficient evidence.
The police said "we've got the whole thing on tape", but when I asked "surely it's on tape: as you say, the whole incident was caught on a camera DIRECTLY opposite and AIMED at where the incident took place by default"
The officer replied - "the tape quality is not that clear"

WTF ?:rolleyes: :mad: :mad:

Why waste my tax money on something that doesn't work when even when pointing at the place by default ?
 
Where I live they only have a few cameras in the downtown. I can't wait for the day when we are monitored 24/7. After all, we are a bunch of criminals and cannot be trusted.

Ockie, I've never been to a protest before but I think the reason that people bring cameras to a protest is so that if something does happen to them they have it on record.
 
I don't get it.....

I mean if you're going to be a criminal then you have the option of carrying a gun. All this does is provide another opportunity for target practice.
 
Shotglass01 said:
I don't get it.....

I mean if you're going to be a criminal then you have the option of carrying a gun. All this does is provide another opportunity for target practice.
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huh? Im sure it hovers high enough where it would be a hard target to hit. On top of that, not all "criminals" carry guns bud lol. Also, wouldnt that draw more attention firing a gun into the air to hit a floating moving object? lol.

On top of all that, wouldnt that make people look up right into the camera to aim? Give the police a nice mug shot?!
 
Retsam said:
huh? Im sure it hovers high enough where it would be a hard target to hit. On top of that, not all "criminals" carry guns bud lol. Also, wouldnt that draw more attention firing a gun into the air to hit a floating moving object? lol.

On top of all that, wouldnt that make people look up right into the camera to aim? Give the police a nice mug shot?!
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It was sarcasm. Course, I don't know about you, but when I was firing, I looked behind the gun giving my target not much of my face to look at but rather the barrel. :)
 
I think I now understand what my former boss at Best Buy meant when he was asked why he left the UK for the US, and all he said was "He didn't like what it turned into."
 
I used to edit a news forum in UK and recall these stories as well:


"GPS tech to rein in UK's speeding motorists"


"Plans are underway to use a satellite-based system to stop motorists from speeding following the conclusion of government-backed trials of the technology in Leeds. The speed limiting technology works by applying brakes or cutting out the accelerator in modified cars whenever a driver tries to exceed to limit for a particular stretch of road."

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/05/gps_car_tracking/



"Big Brother database to record the lives of all children"

The home life of every child in the country is to be recorded on a national database in the ultimate intrusion of the nanny state, it has emerged.

Computer records holding details of school performance, diet and even whether their parents provide a 'positive role model' for 12 million children will be held by the Government.

Police, social workers, teachers and doctors will have access to the database and have powers to flag up 'concerns' where children are not meeting criteria laid down by the state.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=392629&in_page_id=1770
 
yevaud said:
You're not the only one who's seeing the HL2 parallel. *shudder*
It's only a matter of time, folks.
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If they make them tick and blind people with a strobe light, then they should expect people to try to knock them out of the sky. :D
 
cliche said:
Why waste my tax money on something that doesn't work when even when pointing at the place by default ?
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The answer, of course, is that governmental regulation is almost never the answer to anything. That's something for those of us with our heads screwed on straight to know and for politicians to "investigate" by means of conducting a ridiculously bloated taxpayer-funded study which examines their own failed policies. And by "investigate", I mean never figure out.
 
So as a bad guy, the first thing I do is blow the baby camera chopper out of the air... THEN I commit my crime. :eek: :p :D :cool: :rolleyes:

How about those idiots come over and crash into the 3 coyotes living in the woods behind my house. They are starting to be a pain, but in MA I cant touch them... gun, bow, Xbow, slingshot, beartrap, etc all illegal. Ive been considering the only means left open to me... hit them with my car !!!!:eek:
 
it is getting bad for surveillance over here but it does make you feel a bit more secure given the attitudes of today.
Cliche, its sad what happened with you, I would ask for an enquiry and see the tapes!

One things for sure, if you do naughty things in your upstairs rooms, close the curtains lol.
 
twatt said:
Ockie, I've never been to a protest before but I think the reason that people bring cameras to a protest is so that if something does happen to them they have it on record.
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Yep. Exactly. This is why cameras are a good thing, they are really needed by both parties (good and bad)

Shotglass01 said:
I don't get it.....

I mean if you're going to be a criminal then you have the option of carrying a gun. All this does is provide another opportunity for target practice.
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Guns are illegal in the UK, so that would be a good way to catch those breaking the law to begin with :)

Retsam said:
huh? Im sure it hovers high enough where it would be a hard target to hit. On top of that, not all "criminals" carry guns bud lol. Also, wouldnt that draw more attention firing a gun into the air to hit a floating moving object? lol.

On top of all that, wouldnt that make people look up right into the camera to aim? Give the police a nice mug shot?!
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Guns are illegal regardless if it's a criminal or a civilian owning one :)


SamuraiInBlack said:
I think I now understand what my former boss at Best Buy meant when he was asked why he left the UK for the US, and all he said was "He didn't like what it turned into."
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I think he meant something else. The UK has much more serious issues than a bunch of cameras. For starters, enough to make me leave is the gas prices.

Martyr said:
the only thing that saves us from our own govts is their incompetence
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Our government has the same thing, except we use a larger form of observation. We have sattelites that points at us and we also have helicopters.


I don't know why people are so freaking out about this, here in the US we used fixed wing aircraft and helicopters for traffic purposes (speeding, observation, etc). We also use mobile position cameras mounted on swat trucks that can be pushed high into the air.


What these guys did was use a impractical (IMO) device that is readibly availible to everyone to buy to observe groups of gongestion of people for increasing the security of everyone. I don't know about you, but I would MUCH rather want this thing hovering over my head when I'm at a large convention than nothing at all, especially with the rise of terrorism and petty crime.


Also, heck here in the US if we have an event, we even make a no fly zone and patrol it with F18's.
 
I believe a major problem with this technology could be its flight time. Hlicopters are useful because they can remain in the air long enough to record an entire event. If the flight time is less then half an hour then I really don't see this technology being very useful.
 
Yes flight time is an issue.
I did a lot of research 2 months ago into making a mini flying/hovering device a bit like the Puck in Harry Potter.
Using standard and not too expensive Lithium Ion rechargables, a 500g device (including battery and camera) will fly for about 10 minutes.
This can certainly be improved upon with newer battery tech allowing for more power with less weight and more efficient rotors (ie less noise, more lift).

Half an hour flying time should be realisable now with the right batteries.
The future is going to improve on that massively!

One problem these have is being prone to wind.
While they can generate a lot of thrust vertically, they cannot cope with side winds at the same time
So for now, the little copters will be useless in even a moderate wind and could get lost unless tethered!
More thrust needs to be generated and a way to divert it horizontally without increasing mass significantly.
 
Sir Crazy said:
I believe a major problem with this technology could be its flight time. Hlicopters are useful because they can remain in the air long enough to record an entire event. If the flight time is less then half an hour then I really don't see this technology being very useful.
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I agree. A blimp would be by far more a better solution.
 
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