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Your own personal drone
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If you go back and the read the congressional record for yesterday’s session of the U.S. Senate, you’ll see the word "drone" mentioned 489 times. Sen. Rand Paul held the floor for almost 13 hours yesterday, filibustering President Obama’s nomination of John Brennan to run the CIA.
Brennan was confirmed, but Sen. Paul was questioning how the administration uses drones, specifically against Americans. It was a debate about the military use of drone technology but there is a small and growing civilian market in drones.
No jet engines. No hellfire missiles.
So far, just cameras mounted on a thing that looks like an Erector Set with small rotors on top. About the size of the top of a small coffee table. You can get an idea of what these civilian drones look like by clicking through the slide show above.
“Ten years ago, this was unobtainable. You know, this stuff was military industrial stuff, tens of millions for each sensor and today it’s pennies and it’s in your pocket," said Chris Anderson, the CEO of the drone-making firm 3D Robotics, who was until fairly recently the editor of Wired magazine.
Anderson said his business model is simple -- “the beauty of hardware is that the business model could not be more head-slappingly obvious. You charge more than it costs. That’s it.”
The company posts their designs online and charge around $500 to $700 to purchase a pre-built drone from them. For Anderson, the future of drones is about looking beyond military use and the stigma attached to them.
“Remember the Internet used to be a military technology. Computers were invented to calculate artillery trajectory. We forget that. GPS was designed for those cruise missiles," said Anderson. He points to a tradition civilians repurposing military technologies for personal uses. “And so if we do our job right, someday, people won’t associate drone use with military because the vast majority of drones that they see will be civilian.”
And when it comes to privacy concerns, he’s not worried. “How do you feel about camera phones? These are just camera phones with wings.”
So what will fill the R&D space of 3D Robotics in 10 years? Anderson hopes that first and foremost, we’ll forget that drones used to be military. Instead, drones will be commonplace -- he likens them to a personal computer.
“We’re at the level right now where it’s clear that you can have such a thing as a personal drone, that drones can be cheap and easy," he said.
.@kairyssdal flying a drone at @3drobotics vine.co/v/bHMP91DTY5O
— Marketplace(@MarketplaceAPM) March 4, 2013
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This is the future, and it's really neat. It's really sad that so many people are scared of new technology, but people always will be. Chris is doing an amazing job making this accessible to the public and not just the military.
To the poster that said he can shoot down something over his property. No you can't. The FAA owns the airspace. Do you take shots at planes for fun?
Hi Kai, I agree with one of the previous posters. There are two vitally important differences between a camera phone and a camera drone, and they are mobility and anonymity. Despite Mr. Anderson's optimistic outlook, civilian drones are a terrible idea. The number of adverse applications to which such drones may be employed far outweighs their potential benefits. Even without resorting to science fiction-induced paranoia, the following is a short list of realistic negative issues: corporate and international espionage; terrorism; stalking; voyeurism; direct interference with air and land transportation; injuries to people, pets and wildlife; property damage; radio wave interference; increased lawsuits; and aftermarket weaponization. Because drones are controlled remotely, current statues designed to guard us from these types of intrusions and disastrous consequences may be difficult if not impossible to enforce. Imagine the result if one of these things suddenly lost power and fell onto a major highway during rush hour. I hope Congress approaches this cautiously, by restricting the use of drones to search and rescue operations and other limited official capacities.
Kai, I kept waiting during your drone report for the OBVIOUS question: Who or what groups are your biggest customers, and what are they mostly using drones for?"
You could have asked, "Are there any current uses to speak of other than SPYING on people from the air?"
I don't know whether you're totally lacking in curiosity (like too many reporters) or you were afraid to ask a question that might put your interviewee on the spot.
Mr. Anderson dismissed concerns about personal drones by calling them "just camera phones with wings.” But this is precisely the problem! If a person has to stand and snap your photo with a camera phone, you will probably be able to see the photographer and know who is capturing your image. When the phone is flying through the air, it becomes a completely anonymous invasion of your privacy. No thank you, Mr. Anderson. I do NOT want cameras with wings in my neighborhood.
Hi Kai. I was wondering if 3D Robotics has sold to law enforcement and wished you had asked about that. Can't you just see the FBI combining Big Data Analytics to identify "likely criminals" with drone technology to make sure they're not planning anything untoward? Sounds very Brave New World.
Gives me the creeps,
Michael Scalia
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