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