Sunday, January 30, 2011

When The Drones Come Marching In

Way back in the 1970s, hardware-hacker hobbyists built kit computers like the Altair 8800 ? and in doing so paved the way for the computer revolution that would reshape every facet of modern life. Today the same breed of people are building and selling kit flight controllers for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Just sayin'. Drones are far from new: the US military has been using them heavily for over a decade. (What else did the US military pioneer, back in the 1970s? Oh, right. The Internet.) UAV tech has long since metastasized around the world. India's private sector builds UAVs for both military and scientific purposes; Lebanon's de facto government Hezbollah has used Iranian-built drones for years; earlier this month, QinetiQ's solar-powered Zephyr set a world record by flying for 2 weeks nonstop; and, of course, the French-built, iPhone-controlled AR.Parrot has brought UAVs to the masses. All awesome, and all innovating fast. At this rate this may well become the Decade of Drones. Which makes me more than a little uneasy.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/M1IlgFMEyG0/

San Diego Chargers * National Football Conference Dallas Cowboys

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