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posted by chromas on Tuesday November 05 2019, @04:20AM   Printer-friendly
from the aerial-mesh dept.

Police Scotland has unveiled a new aerial drone system to help in searches for missing and vulnerable people.

The remotely-piloted aircraft system (RPAS) can see things we can't to try to work out where people are.

It uses advanced cameras and neural computer networks to spot someone it is looking for - from "a speck" up to 150 metres away.

Its recognition software is compact enough to be run on a phone, with the technology learning as it goes.

"The drone itself has very special sensors on it," said Insp Nicholas Whyte, of Police Scotland's air support unit.

"There's a very highly-powered optical camera which can allow us to see things quite clearly from a good height. Also, there's a thermal imaging sensor which detects heat.

"We're there to find people. People who need our help or people who are lost."

The system is the result of a collaboration involving Police Scotland, the technology multinational Thales and the University of the West of Scotland (UWS).


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by pipedwho on Tuesday November 05 2019, @05:29AM (8 children)

    by pipedwho (2032) on Tuesday November 05 2019, @05:29AM (#916139)

    "We're there to find people. People who need our help or people who are lost."

    People who are undesirable. People on someone's 'shit' list. People who do not agree with the 'party line'. People.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 05 2019, @05:40AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 05 2019, @05:40AM (#916143)

    No no, see you have it all wrong. We'll equip the drone with a tazer so if the missing person's cell phone needs charging we can remotely discharge 20,000V directly to the missing person. And a robot will be sent to the site to take them to a special missing person's facility conveniently located in a 3rd country. Nice and safe.

    • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 05 2019, @07:10AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 05 2019, @07:10AM (#916161)

      "We're there to find people. People who need our help or people who are lost."

      People we have orders to hit with a missile from a drone, because the US Military is all about following orders and assassinating the enemies of The House of Saud.

      Ferking Mercenaries! Hope they all die before they get any Veteran benefit, and I say this as a Vet myself. The Nuremberg Tribunals set the standards, soliders! If you do not know what that means, your training is defective, and perhaps it is time to ask, "why"?

      Soldiers are not assassins. Assassins are not soldiers. (Hint: They are pot smokers!) Hired killers are not soldiers. Soldiers are not hired killers. George W. Bush is a mercenary bastard, and he knows it. All hat, no cattle; all bravado, no courage.

  • (Score: 2) by BsAtHome on Tuesday November 05 2019, @05:50AM (2 children)

    by BsAtHome (889) on Tuesday November 05 2019, @05:50AM (#916145)

    Yes, all those people, who have turned off their television set or hidden it behind a painting.

    35 years after the predictions we are getting there.

    • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Tuesday November 05 2019, @06:08AM (1 child)

      by mhajicek (51) on Tuesday November 05 2019, @06:08AM (#916151)

      This TV has an off switch! That's illegal!

      --
      The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Tuesday November 05 2019, @01:23PM

        by maxwell demon (1608) on Tuesday November 05 2019, @01:23PM (#916220) Journal

        TVs with an off switch are extremely rare these days. Most only come ith a standby switch labelled as “off”.

        --
        The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 05 2019, @06:19AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 05 2019, @06:19AM (#916152)

    The future is getting grim. I want a refund!

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 05 2019, @07:37AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 05 2019, @07:37AM (#916166)

    Well, true, more or less...
    It's amazing how fast those 'people who need our help' (into the back of a paddy wagon) disappear when they hear the dulcet tones of the polis Scotland's whirlypig squad echoing up and down the Clyde valley as they rush to be helpful..
    Let's face it, from their POV, drones are both cheaper to run and, well, a lot sneakier than helicopters, and no pesky ADS-B to worry about either (and drones are less likely to kill people when 'operator error' crash lands them into pubs)
    The polis will be very happy having a fleet o' flying clype tail clippit arses to play with, of course, purely to search for the 'missing' and 'vulnerable'...as we say here, 'Aye, right...and d'ye think I came up the Clyde in a banana boat?'

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Tuesday November 05 2019, @11:35AM

    by jmichaelhudsondotnet (8122) on Tuesday November 05 2019, @11:35AM (#916198) Journal

    True story, can confirm. See my journal.

    This will find 1 missing person for every 10 million people harassed.