The Drone Blog

A project devoted to tracking and thinking about the United States' use of remotely piloted aircraft, both outside and inside of the United States.

[gyrewalker]

Both houses of the Virginia state legislature imposed a two-year moratorium on drone flights by regulatory and law enforcement agencies while the city of Seattle returned the drone and equipment to the manufacturer.  It's possible that the FAA, with it's willingness to moderate a public debate actually created the momentum for public concern that other surveillance technologies do not. 

It's also possible that the "eye in the sky" with visions of Skynet's Hunter-Killers orbiting a dystopian nightmare hit the right emotional key in a way that data mining or it's Barney-sounding sister term "Big Data" does not. 

[gyrewalker]

Developed by DARPA, the ARGUS-IS (Autonomous Real-time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance-Imaging System) is a 1.8 gigapixel camera that could be add "persistent stare" technology to the drone fleet. The ability to record 5,000 hours of imagery of one point would allow operators to reach back into time and watch city with the ability to pick out specific people at specific time. 

[gyrewalker]

As William Saletan puts it: 

To minimize any risk to Americans, our government will find a way around whatever gets in the way, including our language and our law."