Drones.....nuisance or cool?

[BigN8]

I have to admit when the first videos were posted I thought the video was way cool, and I thought about getting one. But I didn't, I figured just like everything else the price would come down. Now I have read articles about drones crashing in state parks, crashing into people, and the paparazzi snooping on celebrities in their own back yard. Now I think it's getting out of control. We'll today a buddy and me were chilling out at party cove and I watched a dude in a brand new AR190 fly a drone all around party cove. He made several orbits for an overall video time of I would say around 20 minutes. Watching the drone and where he flew it all I could think was pervert. The guy will obviously post the video on YouTube hoping for a high watch count. The guy was out there with another dude, they never got in the water, and never filmed themselves. They were all about getting video of people letting loose and having a good time. They also didn't know shit about boating. Brand new boat, and the fluke anchor had never been wet..still had the sticker on it from the store. They couldn't anchor the boat.

It's sad that this is what technology has come to. You can't go anywhere anymore without someone rolling tape on your ass. And now you have perverts hovering HD cameras over your ass without permission and who knows what happens with the video.

I'm sure glad I went threw my late teens and 20's without all of today's video technology, because god knows I would have something embarrassing posted on some social media site. I feel bad for today's youth. Big brother is everywhere and now drones will make it even worse.

Today was 1 drone, next year there will be 6 drones, and the next year there will be a dozen. If you want to film yourself great. But leave the rest of us alone!!!

I believe the FAA will put the kibosh on drones real soon. At least that is my hope. The whole display left a bad taste in my mouth.

 

[davel501]

I have to admit when the first videos were posted I thought the video was way cool, and I thought about getting one. But I didn't, I figured just like everything else the price would come down. Now I have read articles about drones crashing in state parks, crashing into people, and the paparazzi snooping on celebrities in their own back yard. Now I think it's getting out of control. We'll today a buddy and me were chilling out at party cove and I watched a dude in a brand new AR190 fly a drone all around party cove. He made several orbits for an overall video time of I would say around 20 minutes. Watching the drone and where he flew it all I could think was pervert. The guy will obviously post the video on YouTube hoping for a high watch count. The guy was out there with another dude, they never got in the water, and never filmed themselves. They were all about getting video of people letting loose and having a good time. They also didn't know shit about boating. Brand new boat, and the fluke anchor had never been wet..still had the sticker on it from the store. They couldn't anchor the boat.

It's sad that this is what technology has come to. You can't go anywhere anymore without someone rolling tape on your ass. And now you have perverts hovering HD cameras over your ass without permission and who knows what happens with the video.

I'm sure glad I went threw my late teens and 20's without all of today's video technology, because god knows I would have something embarrassing posted on some social media site. I feel bad for today's youth. Big brother is everywhere and now drones will make it even worse.

Today was 1 drone, next year there will be 6 drones, and the next year there will be a dozen. If you want to film yourself great. But leave the rest of us alone!!!

I believe the FAA will put the kibosh on drones real soon. At least that is my hope. The whole display left a bad taste in my mouth.

Time for a wash-down pump.

 

[HidnNOS]

You are out in public, get over it. Dont do anything in public you dont want on youtube and you wont have anything to complain about. Say you are in a group, someone infront of you has pictures taken, you are in the background, do you throw a tantrum? No, you move on with your life and if its SUCH A BIG DEAL you try and "politely" share your feelings with the person at the controls. Was this thing hovering 2 feet above your head, I HIGHLY DOUBT IT, get over it. Instead you call this person a pervert? Generally when people go around calling other people names......

 

[davel501]

You are out in public, get over it. Dont do anything in public you dont want on youtube and you wont have anything to complain about. Say you are in a group, someone infront of you has pictures taken, you are in the background, do you throw a tantrum? No, you move on with your life and if its SUCH A BIG DEAL you try and "politely" share your feelings with the person at the controls. Was this thing hovering 2 feet above your head, I HIGHLY DOUBT IT, get over it. Instead you call this person a pervert? Generally when people go around calling other people names......

So if a guy takes a picture up your wife's skirt it's ok because she was in public?

 

[HidnNOS]

So if a guy takes a picture up your wife's skirt it's ok because she was in public?

Most moronic comparison ever

 

[jdonalds]

So if a guy takes a picture up your wife's skirt it's ok because she was in public?

Apparently not. We were in a Reno casino last Sunday. A guy within 10 feet of us was arrested for doing exactly that.

 

[jdonalds]

My opinion. Cool Today -> on the way to becoming a nuisance.

To some degree I think we will get used to having them nearby. But I think laws will emerge regarding some kind of "personal space" restrictions.

 

[GTBRMC]

Dawning of an idea...

Hey Will, want to market a jetboater mobile anti-drone system?

Estes rocket, small warhead, smartphone app to control launch and detonation timing.
Like the old James Garner Polaroid ads: just point & shoot!

PS: dear mr NSA and mr homeland security, I am just kidding

 

[davel501]

Most moronic comparison ever

Are you drunk? Calm down keyboard Hercules.

So where do you draw the line on privacy? Sony had those video cameras that could see through clothing with their night vision sensor that they pulled from the market. Is that ok?

 

[HidnNOS]

Are you drunk? Calm down keyboard Hercules.

So where do you draw the line on privacy? Sony had those video cameras that could see through clothing with their night vision sensor that they pulled from the market. Is that ok?

Drunk? Lol, not at all, and I stand by the statement you quoted

 

[davel501]

Drunk? Lol, not at all, and I stand by the statement you quoted

So where do you draw the line?

 

[Britboater]

The laws here in the UK are strict concerning drones and I believe the US will be imposing more rules soon too, including the right to shot it down at will, which unfortunately we'll never have that sport

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-02/20/shoot-down-drones

 

[Ronnie]

This could get political here fast, it's already a hot media topic and get more exposure daily.

Here is my take.

1. The things being flown around by most "average joes" today are not drones. They are radio controlled helicopters that have been refined for camera work (e.g. 4 blades along with GPS stabilization and self leveling camera gimbals). A drone once taught or programmed will take off, fly and land by itself. From this perspective today's multi-copters have only made airborne videography easier than it used to be than it was with older RC helicopters. Guys have been mounting cameras to their RC helis for years but only recently have advances in technology have made it cheap and easy enough for just about anyone to do it. How long has the military been in the drone business (with our money)?

2. Cameras are already everywhere, camera phones probably out number multi-copters by over a million to 1, since multi-copters are nowhere near as versatile as camera phones this will probably never change. GoPro has just started transforming itself into a "Media Company" but sales of it cameras (and accessories) increases every year and they are already in the millions. Multi-copters give the average joe the ability to get shots they couldn't unless they had access to a real helicopter and even than there are many places a multi-copter can go that a scale heli could not.

3. Yes there are idiots out there that can do wrong with multi-copters if given the chance. However, there are a lot of other beneficial uses as well. San Jose just bought a high end one to help it's police force. Building inspectors can use them instead of undertaking dangerous climbs or repels or an actual helicopter ride. There are also possibilities in search and rescue, real time traffic reporting, etc., etc.

4. What it comes down to is "reasonable expectation of privacy". Recently guys have been busted, and rightly so IMHO, for "unlawful felony surveillance" interfering with a life flight helicopter, for video taping the exterior of a hospital and the roofless public restroom at a beach. On the flip side a lady on the east coast assaulted, actually battered, a guy using a quad copter at a public beach, in that case she got arrested. Nobody has a reasonable expectation of privacy on a public beach, waterway, park etc. Depending on window and door location, you may not have a reasonable expectation of privacy on the first floor of a multi-story building.

5. Legal definitions and cases aside, when I perceive people are annoyed by my flying I stop and /or go somewhere else, with one exception. Last week I toted a quadcopter up and down a local mountain on a 7.5 mile hiking trip I'll be damned if I wasn't going to film when I got to the top of the mountain just because someone didn't want to be video taped that day. I did notice and hear that other quad copter flyers had already visited the location earlier in the day. Ninety plus percent of the time , I have had subjects waive to the camera or signal me to come in closer for better footage.

6. The FAA may have the final call in the U.S. but they have been slow to respond and their most recent ruling only prohibits flying by first person methods (e.g. goggles and/or are onscreen displays), that is, operators must fly by line of sight. Like Marijuana laws states have already begun to take action ahead of the federal government, with bills prohibiting things like using mulit-copters to scout prey before the hunt starts, the allowance of shooting mutli-copters down, etc. Additionally, multi-copter manufacturers are also taking action to preempt state and federal "fixes". The most recent being an auto land trigger is the operator flys in restricted space, like an airport. Today I got an on screen notice that I was flying close to a restricted zone, I believe it was the water treatment plant, but instead of forcing me to land I was just warned to fly over 120 meters high, too late.

I plan to continue using my quadcopters but this weekend I got a chance to use it during my family's annual camping trip but being so busy I didn't fly much at all and consequently didn't get much footage with the integrated camera. Thankfully, my family liked using the gopro so I still got a lot of good footage, probably too much.

 

[Gym]

I think as technology evolves so will limitations. There have already been close calls involving RC devices and the FAA is looking at regulating them. I'm sure over the next several years owners of these devices will have to register them and maybe even need permits. Of course there will be fees for doing both. It will only take one idiot or criminal / terrorist to fly one of these into a commercial aircraft before we get these restrictions and like guns it will usually only hurt the lawful user.

 

[BravoMike]

It will only take one idiot or criminal / terrorist to fly one of these into a commercial aircraft before we get these restrictions and like guns it will usually only hurt the lawful user.

Exactly! Why is it the majority/law abiding citizen pays the price when it should be the other way around. I know there are extremists out there that no matter what the price they are going to do what they are going to do. But, why punish the law abiding citizen for THEIR acts...ones they will commit no matter what the law says.

 

[BigN8]

You are out in public, get over it. Dont do anything in public you dont want on youtube and you wont have anything to complain about. Say you are in a group, someone infront of you has pictures taken, you are in the background, do you throw a tantrum? No, you move on with your life and if its SUCH A BIG DEAL you try and "politely" share your feelings with the person at the controls. Was this thing hovering 2 feet above your head, I HIGHLY DOUBT IT, get over it. Instead you call this person a pervert? Generally when people go around calling other people names......

http://news.yahoo.com/banned-drone-may-damaged-yellowstone-spring-105759323.html

Further down in the article it explains how a great sunset at the grand canyon was ruined by a drone. Just because you are in public doesn't give you the right to annoy others in the same public area. It's equivalent to a cell phone in a movie theater. Believe me I have "politely" shared my feelings with the people that whip out there cell phone in a dark movie theater, and I would say rarely does the offender politely put it away. They usually ignore the request or get confrontational. I have seen this first hand and have witnessed others try and request that someone put their phone away.

 

[Gym]

Not to drag this out but we're not going to put technology back in the box so, unfortunately, regulation is what's going to happen just as it has with most technologies. Some cars have governors on them to limit their speed. You may see similar devices put on these RC devices to limit their altitude and range. Hell, you can't even tie weather balloons to a lawn chair and go for a leisurely flight anymore without the FAA bursting your bubble.