One Drone Thread to Rule them ALL

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Re: One Drone Thread to Rule them ALL

Postby Pele'sDaughter » Wed Aug 27, 2014 4:02 pm

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/ ... 716071.php

SAN ANTONIO - Drones, dubstep and... God?

A North Texas megachurch pastor is using drones, which have killed more than 4,700 people in the past decade, to spread his message of the omniscient power of God through sermons and in a 45-second video ad.

The ad, which ran in Dallas-area theaters during previews for the movie "Guardians of the Galaxy," promotes "Drone Month" at Pastor Ed Young's Fellowship Church in Grapevine. The video features Young, standing in front of a predator drone armed with missiles, comparing drones' ability to "know it all" and "see it all" to God while dubstep music plays in the background.

"The drone metaphor is a terrible and disturbing one," said Matthew Gault, who wrote about the ads in Medium's War is Boring blog. "It trivializes the big questions about a scary new technology and equates God with a weapon of war."

Image

God IS a weapon of war, Mr. Gault. :angelwings:
Don't believe anything they say.
And at the same time,
Don't believe that they say anything without a reason.
---Immanuel Kant
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Re: One Drone Thread to Rule them ALL

Postby elfismiles » Mon Sep 15, 2014 3:08 pm

Samsung SGR-A1 Robot Sentry Is One Cold Machine
By Edwin Kee on 09/14/2014

Image

A Samsung Group subsidiary has worked on a robot sentry that they call the SGR-A1, and this particular robot will carry a fair amount of weapons that ought to make you think twice about crossing the borders of South Korea illegally – as it has been tested out at the demilitarized zone along the border over with its neighbor, North Korea. The SGR-A1 will be able to detect intruders with the help of machine vision (read: cameras), alongside a combination of heat and motion sensors.

The whole idea of the Samsung SGR-A1 is to let this military robot sentry do the work of its human counterparts over at the demilitarized zone at the South and North Korea border, so that there will be a minimal loss of life on the South Korean side just in case things turn sour between the two neighbors.

First announced in 2006 (where obvious improvements have been made since, and I am not surprised if much of it remained as classified information), this $200,000, all weather, 5.56 mm robotic machine gun also sports an optional grenade launcher. It will make use of its IR and visible light cameras to track multiple targets and remains under the control of a human operator from a remote location. Basically, it claims to be able to “identify and shoot a target automatically from over two miles (3.2 km) away.” Scary! When used on the DMZ, this robot will not distinguish between friend or foe – anyone who crosses the line is deemed as an enemy.

Filed in Military >Robots. Read more about Samsung.

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2014/09/samsun ... d-machine/




Joao » 23 Oct 2013 00:47 wrote:
ImageMachine gun-toting robots deployed on DMZ
Jon Rabiroff, Stars and Stripes, July 12 2010

DEMILITARIZED ZONE, Korea — Security along the DMZ has gone high-tech, as South Korea has quietly installed a number of machine gun-armed robots to serve as the first line of defense against the potential advance of North Korean soldiers.

The stationary robots — which look like a cross between a traffic signal and a tourist-trap telescope — are more drone than Terminator in concept, operated remotely just outside the southern boundary of the DMZ by humans in a nearby command center.

Officials refuse to say how many or where the robots have been deployed along the heavily fortified border between the two Koreas, but did say they were installed late last month and will be operated on an experimental basis through the end of the year.

[...]


(I didn't search exhaustively but was unable to find a follow-up about any decisions made following the 2010 "experimental" phase.)

American Dream [w/minor formatting tweaks by Joao] » Wed Feb 27, 2008 8:10 pm wrote:
Automated killer robots 'threat to humanity': expert
(AFP) – Feb 26, 2008

PARIS — Increasingly autonomous, gun-totting robots developed for warfare could easily fall into the hands of terrorists and may one day unleash a robot arms race, a top expert on artificial intelligence told AFP. "They pose a threat to humanity," said University of Sheffield professor Noel Sharkey ahead of a keynote address Wednesday before Britain's Royal United Services Institute.

Intelligent machines deployed on battlefields around the world -- from mobile grenade launchers to rocket-firing drones -- can already identify and lock onto targets without human help.

There are more than 4,000 US military robots on the ground in Iraq, as well as unmanned aircraft that have clocked hundreds of thousands of flight hours. The first three armed combat robots fitted with large-caliber machine guns deployed to Iraq last summer, manufactured by US arms maker Foster-Miller, proved so successful that 80 more are on order, said Sharkey.

But up to now, a human hand has always been required to push the button or pull the trigger. It we are not careful, he said, that could change. Military leaders "are quite clear that they want autonomous robots as soon as possible, because they are more cost-effective and give a risk-free war," he said.

[...]




elfismiles » 24 Oct 2013 14:40 wrote:I believe the US and Israel have some automated / remote-controlled machine-gun towers along portions of walls keeping the Palestinians in their prison and along the US/Mex border. Can't find the posts about this from around here yet but still looking... I think they are mentioned in this video by Daniel Suarez.

EDIT: Here is what I was remembering...

What’s Next in National Security Robo-Snipers, AutoKillZones
by General Patton » 05 Jan 2010 01:53
http://www.rigorousintuition.ca/board2/ ... =8&t=26510


elfismiles » 05 Jan 2010 18:59 wrote:thought this atrocity was familiar ... had seen an article on it back in 2008 but the OP was even earlier, 2007.

Where is the puke emoticon?

How long till DARPA proposes mounting such turrets on top of cell/microwave towers?


Israeli “Auto Kill Zone” Towers Locked and Loaded
By Noah Shachtman December 5, 2008 | 10:00 am | Categories: Crime and Homeland Security, Israel, Weapons and Ammo

Image

On the U.S.-Mexico border, the American government has been trying, with limited success, to set up a string of sensor-laden sentry towers, which would watch out for illicit incursions. In Israel, they’ve got their own set of border towers. But the Sabras’ model comes with automatic guns, operated from afar.

The Sentry Tech towers are basically remote weapons stations, stuck on stop of silos. "As suspected hostile targets are detected and within range of Sentry-Tech positions, the weapons are slewing toward the designated target," David Eshel describes over at Ares. "As multiple stations can be operated by a single operator, one or more units can be used to engage the target, following identification and verification by the commander."

We flagged the towers last year, as the Israeli Defense Forces were setting up the systems, designed to create 1500-meter deep "automated kill zones" along the Gaza border.

"Each unit mounts a 7.62 or 0.5" machine gun, shielded from enemy fire and the elements by an environmentally protective bulletproof canopy," Eshel explains. "In addition to the use of direct fire machine guns, observers can also employ precision guided missiles, such as Spike LR optically guided missiles and Lahat laser guided weapons."

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2008/12 ... i-auto-ki/

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Re: One Drone Thread to Rule them ALL

Postby Rory » Tue Sep 16, 2014 12:23 pm

Those automated sentry guns would have been awesome during the last Korean war, 60 years ago - I'm certain they would have saved many lives.

What is their performance going to be like in the face of N. Korea nuking Seoul and turning the sentry placement's power supply into radioactive rubble?

They'll cut desperate refugees to ribbons though..

Edit to include green font for irony as some people can't/won't intuit a bit of Gary Bretcher esque cynicism
Last edited by Rory on Tue Sep 16, 2014 1:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: One Drone Thread to Rule them ALL

Postby coffin_dodger » Tue Sep 16, 2014 1:16 pm

those sentry guns are one of the most horrible things imaginable. utter killing machines - up close and personal, messy and barbaric. yeah, I know all weapons are shit, but these are just plain nasty.

Those automated sentry guns would have been awesome during the last Korean war


yeah, just dandy.
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Re: One Drone Thread to Rule them ALL

Postby elfismiles » Thu Sep 18, 2014 5:43 pm

The Navy’s massive Triton drone just flew across the U.S. for the first time (Video)
By Dan Lamothe September 18 at 1:41 PM


Image
The MQ-4 Triton aerial drone is shown here completing its first flight May 22, 2013, from the Northrop Grumman manufacturing facility in Palmdale, Calif. On Thursday, it reached another goal, flying across the United States for the first time. (Northrop Grumman photo by Alex Evers/Released by U.S. Navy)
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Re: One Drone Thread to Rule them ALL

Postby elfismiles » Sat Sep 20, 2014 9:53 am

UAV With Facial Recognition Takes Flight
By Express News Service
Published: 20th September 2014 06:20 AM
Last Updated: 20th September 2014 06:20 AM

CHENNAI: A group of students at SRM University led by Sobin Santhosh, final year student in the Aerospace department have designed and implemented an autonomous copter equipped with an automatic face and person recognition system in a day. In their drill experiment of the rescue application, an onboard camera was mounted on a quad-copter UAV where a live video was recorded. The video was fed to the person identification software, developed on a MATLAB platform by Arijit Ray, a final year student of SRM University in the Electrical and Electronics Department. The software successfully detected the target person in an image taken while the copter has hovering. Several images of the target individual were taken in different postures, angles and backdrops to ensure that the software has a robust accuracy. The GPS location of the snapshot image was also transmitted to the ground station and it conformed exactly to the location at which the snapshot was taken.

According to Arijit Ray, “Computer vision equipped copters have unprecedented applications to change the world, ranging from rescue operations in the most inaccessible of places to smart surveillance and security in the most complex and dynamic of environments.” According to Dr Narayana Rao, the Director of Research at SRM University, “Autonomous Copters have potential applications such as surveillance, aerial photography and also have various strategic applications.” The Autonomous Copter is a type of unmanned aerial vehicle that can fly without human intervention, said a press release.

http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/ ... 439901.ece
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Re: One Drone Thread to Rule them ALL

Postby elfismiles » Thu Sep 25, 2014 4:56 pm

Image
Flying LampshadeBots Come Alive in Cirque du Soleil Performance
By Evan Ackerman
Posted 23 Sep 2014 | 14:50 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C8OJsHfmpI
http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robo ... -du-soleil
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Re: One Drone Thread to Rule them ALL

Postby elfismiles » Fri Sep 26, 2014 2:47 pm

A Wearable Camera That Would Turn Into a Drone and Fly Off Your Wrist
Kate Knibbs
http://gizmodo.com/a-wearable-camera-th ... 1639481900


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VFsdPAoI1g
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Re: One Drone Thread to Rule them ALL

Postby elfismiles » Tue Sep 30, 2014 4:02 pm

New Jersey Man Accused Of Shooting Down Neighbor’s Remote Control Drone
September 30, 2014 12:05 PM
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2014/0 ... rol-drone/
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Re: One Drone Thread to Rule them ALL

Postby Pele'sDaughter » Tue Sep 30, 2014 5:52 pm

http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2014/09/ ... veillance/

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CBS/AP) — Gov. Jerry Brown has vetoed a bill that would have placed strict limits on law enforcement agencies using unmanned aerial drones for surveillance.

The governor’s office announced that the bill was one of more than a dozen pieces of legislation he vetoed Sunday.

AB1327 by Republican Assemblyman Jeff Gorrell of Camarillo would have required government agencies to get warrants before conducting surveillance with drones and would have required that they publicly announce their intent to buy and use them.

It was passed by the Legislature in the last days of its session last month.

Brown said in a statement that the bill appears to be too narrow and could go beyond what the state and federal constitutions would prohibit.

“There are undoubtedly circumstances where a warrant is appropriate,” he wrote. “The bill’s exceptions, however, appear to be too narrow and could impose requirements beyond what is required by either the 4th Amendment or the privacy provisions in the California Constitution.”
Don't believe anything they say.
And at the same time,
Don't believe that they say anything without a reason.
---Immanuel Kant
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Re: One Drone Thread to Rule them ALL

Postby Grizzly » Wed Oct 01, 2014 8:35 pm

Just heard this. Think about it one for a moment,


"Right now we have the executive branch making a claim that it has the right to kill anyone, anywhere on Earth, at any time, for secret reasons based on secret evidence, in a secret process undertaken by unidentified officials. That frightens me." This is how Rosa Brooks, a Georgetown professor and former Pentagon official under President Obama, explained the US policy on drone strikes during a congressional hearing last year.

After hearing that, on the John Oliver show, I looked her up and found the following:




Link, right to the section with her...
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Drones (HBO)
http://youtu.be/K4NRJoCNHIs?t=12m3s

Here's the whole show...
“The more we do to you, the less you seem to believe we are doing it.”

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Re: One Drone Thread to Rule them ALL

Postby Pele'sDaughter » Thu Oct 02, 2014 3:21 pm

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/01/politics/ ... civilians/

Washington (CNN) -- New rules meant to temper the civilian death toll from unmanned U.S. drones won't apply in the fight against terrorists in Iraq and Syria, the White House says.

The standards, which Obama spelled out during a high profile address last year, were meant partly to allay concerns many Americans felt toward lethal drones. President Obama said at the time the drone strikes were used with far greater frequency than his predecessor in going after militants -- including in his fight against ISIS.

But while officials in Washington insist there are strict standards to prevent civilians from dying in Iraq and Syria, the rules Obama said last year would stem civilian deaths aren't being applied in the new war against ISIS.

"The specific standards at issue in the NDU speech apply only when we take direct action 'outside areas of active hostilities,' as was noted at the time," said Caitlin Hayden, the spokeswoman for Obama's National Security Council, referring to Obama's address at the National Defense University in the spring of 2013. "That description—outside areas of active hostilities—simply does not fit what we are seeing on the ground in Iraq and Syria right now."

In addition, the strikes in Syria and Iraq are being conducted by manned aircraft in addition to unmanned vehicles, although that distinction might not be apparent from the ground.

The White House's decision to exempt the mission against ISIS from the drone standards was first reported by the investigative journalist Michael Isikoff on Yahoo News.

Incidents of civilians being killed by drones have helped fuel resentment for the United States in places like Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia, where al Qaeda cells have sprouted since 2001.

During his widely-anticipated remarks about drones last year, Obama said civilian deaths were a facet of every war. But he vowed to do more to prevent them in his bid to go after jihadist cells.

"For the families of those civilians, no words or legal construct can justify their loss," he said. "For me, and those in my chain of command, those deaths will haunt us as long as we live, just as we are haunted by the civilian casualties that have occurred throughout conventional fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq."

In new criteria for drone strikes, the White House insisted there must be "near certainty that non-combatants will not be injured or killed" before an attack is ordered. Other parameters included ensuring the terrorist target is present and certifying capture isn't a feasible option.

McCain: ISIS' rise like 'watching a train wreck'

While the White House says those strictures don't apply in the battle against ISIS, they do claim measures are underway to prevent civilians from dying.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby described a process of choosing targets in Iraq and Syria that takes into account the potential for non-ISIS deaths.

"While we continue to hit [ISIS] where they are, it doesn't mean we can or even that we should hit them everywhere they are at every moment," Kirby said. "We must choose. We must discriminate between targets that matter more to us in space and time than others, and between those that run higher risks of collateral damage or civilian casualties."

In the week since airstrikes began in Syria there have been reports of civilian deaths, though U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) has yet to verify any non-ISIS militants have died in the air campaign.

On Sunday night, U.S. military forces targeted to an ISIL-held grain storage facility near Manbij. The facility was being used by ISIL as a logistics hub and vehicle staging facility, according to CENTCOM.

A Syrian human rights group said the strikes in Manbij killed at least two workers at the grain silos, and a U.S. official said the military was looking into the possibility civilians were killed.

As Obama noted during his remarks in 2013, civilian deaths happen during times of war. Military experts say that's an important fact for Americans to understand, even as the government works to prevent them.

"To suggest that we can do a clean war with near certainty that we won't have civilian casualties I think simply is misleading the American people. We haven't done that in the history of warfare and I don't think that history has changed," Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said Tuesday on "The Lead with Jake Tapper."
Don't believe anything they say.
And at the same time,
Don't believe that they say anything without a reason.
---Immanuel Kant
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