Multirotor on BBC Newsnight



Malcr001

Member
Anyone know what company this is? Would love to get a job doing something at all remotely related to this but it all seems scarce at the moment.
 


BBC Radio Oxford interviewed me this morning on air about this article. They were trying to see if people were concerned and I don't think people were particularly concerned apart from one guy from Dronewatch UK worrying about privacy issues etc. Jo(e) Public were, on the whole, 'So what? If it helps cut crime...' about it.

At the end of the day, we have the same rights as any other photographer as to where we can and cannot film, we just happen to be a bit higher up and, in fact, are more restricted by our CAA licence as to where we can fly.
 


ChrisViperM

Active Member
There are some rumours out there that they also want to regulate the use of broom sticks, since any criminal minded individual could easily mount a camera to the broom stick and peek to the neighbors fat wife and take pictures from her and her hair rollers, like it's done everywhere with Multirotors (also known as Drones)....the hobby voyeur might be allowed to carry out his passion in certain designated areas, whereas the professional Paparazzi has to obtain a lizence from the lokal CCD (City Cleaning Departmen)

Chris
 
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R_Lefebvre

Arducopter Developer
Yeah, I really don't get it. In my experience, people immediately DO jump to privacy concerns when I tell them what I'm doing. I flew my quad over to another subdivision, and was hovering over there for a few minutes having a look around. When telling some coworkers and family members what I'd done, most people seemed to be concerned about privacy.

What am I possibly going to see with a 0.3MP camera with a wide angle lens, from 200 feet up? Would you object to me walking through your neighborhood? I could see much more that way.
 

jes1111

Active Member
Agreed - this silly notion that you can look through bedroom windows is complete nonsense! When I tried it the reflections on the outside glass were terrible and, anyway, the auto exposure system refused to reveal any detail of the interior.
 

Malcr001

Member
I agree with everyone here, its so annoying when they jump to the idea of using it to perve inside bedroom windows. I laughed when the guy suggested that they should have the same level of restriction as firearms lol. How the hell would you regulate that, its a stupid idea.

People trying to put barriers up against us when this doesnt really change anything. There are planes and helicopters in the sky, police helicopters are always around my house up at 100ft and they have cameras on them. Theres also an islander plane that flys routinely like clockwork everyday, day in day out used to collect intelligence via wireless communication networks. Maybe we also should not forget that there are plenty of intelligence satelites floating around the world, probably accurate enough to read the number plate off your car.

I hate the media hype about this when there is so many positive uses for the technology.
 

DennyR

Active Member
When I first started out in the AP Business I had a few interesting experiences. One of my pictures of a small 9 hole golf course placed a child murderers van at the scene of the crime which resulted in a conviction. Then there was the time when I was out selling some speculative pictures and the local bobby came up and asked when did I shoot that particular area. He then had a look though the pictures and found what he was looking for. A team of Gypsies had been stealing lead from the roofs of the local mansions and without knowing I had the perfect evidence. The funniest one was in the New Forrest, As I walked into the garden a nice looking woman said I hope that is not another aerial picture you've got there. I already have three of them so go away. I replied yes madam but do they have your Rolls Royce and the Porsche parked in the front? She looked at me and said did you say Porsche, I said yes, she said how much is that picture so I quickly realised that the porsche was not supposed to be there so I doubled the price. She bought it and said don't come back, I expect she disposed of it soon after. This was in the days of low level shooting from a Cessna. Speculative shooting was to become a big business soon after.

I think those days are over now. :apathy::apathy:
 
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R_Lefebvre

Arducopter Developer
Agreed - this silly notion that you can look through bedroom windows is complete nonsense! When I tried it the reflections on the outside glass were terrible and, anyway, the auto exposure system refused to reveal any detail of the interior.

LOL.

I think it's fear-mongering when people talk about this, but it also plays to people's vanity. Sure, I *could* try to look into your windows. But why would I? You're fat and ugly and there's so much stuff available for free on the internet anyway. ;)

Besides which, if I really did just have some fetish and wanted to view people, I could just as easily do it with a pole cam, or a climb a tree.

And not to mention... why are you leaving your blinds down? People walking by the street, or the neighours, they can all look in your window too. Draw your blinds. And don't suntan naked.

It reminds me of the time we had our first house built. The lot beside us was empty, but eventually they put house up. While they were framing, we noticed that the dining room window of the new house lined up EXACTLY with our bedroom window, and only ~6 feet seperated the houses. I tipped the framer a case of beer to move the dining room window over a few feet. ;) Most people probably wouldn't have even thought of it, but the idea of drones scares them.
 

DennyR

Active Member
The only fear that people should rightly have is one of the danger aspect. Models crash every weekend at your local flying club. Full size aircraft also crash but not as often, but the survival instinct directs contact with cumula granite away from built up areas
 
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R_Lefebvre

Arducopter Developer
I agree. Way to many people flying in dangerous places. And this doesn't just apply to multirotors or UAV's. The electric RC revolution has led to lots of people flying in public parks.

Not to say that I only fly at my RC club. But I tend to believe that you need some distance, to simply reduce the odds that if something goes wrong, you hit somebody. Flying 20 feet over a crowd is bad. Flying 200 feet, and maybe there's somebody walking a dog down there... pretty small risk.
 

RC Flying

A Drone Mind
Anyone know what company this is? Would love to get a job doing something at all remotely related to this but it all seems scarce at the moment.
It was me flying the little quad live in the studio. All the outside stuff was filmed earlier with other people.
 


Malcr001

Member
It was me flying the little quad live in the studio. All the outside stuff was filmed earlier with other people.

Awesome, someone else in other forum mentioned he was in the video where they did the mock criminal chase scene. It's funny how most show up on these forums.
 

RC Flying

A Drone Mind
There was no Paxman, he's on a Summer break, it was Gavin Esler presenting. It was pretty scary doing it live, especially as I knew a load of my friends were watching.
 

ZAxis

Member
There was no Paxman, he's on a Summer break, it was Gavin Esler presenting. It was pretty scary doing it live, especially as I knew a load of my friends were watching.

Must put my glasses on and watch it again, they're all the same to me.

Will we see you at the UK meet ?

andy
 


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