By Audrey Sternberg
In 2000, a TV series called Dark Angel featured a drone, a pilot-less aircraft operated by remote control. In the series, it was used to observe and identify faces before then killing people. Scary stuff!
It was fiction, of course - though drones were already being used by the army.
However, it looks like fiction is rapidly becoming reality: Liverpool has decided to use video drones to keep an eye on its citizens. So, after the instalment of video cameras on street corners all around the UK, there will now be drones to keep the unruly masses under even closer watch.
The unmanned CCTV drone, which measures only a metre wide, is fitted with the latest in CCTV cameras and can record images from a height of 500m. Big Brother is getting nearer and nearer!
After hearing this news, I tried to find more on the internet. Of course, on Google News France, I found nothing about the UK drone. But I read an interesting article about a drone which won the 2007 Lepine Award earlier this month and which is capable of detecting chemical products in the air. It’s composed of a set of sensors which are able to detect potential pollution thanks to the association of a video camera and GPS localisation. All this information is transmitted to a headquarters located within a radius of about 10km.
But it’s not just about pollution. It has already been used for an anti-terrorist initiative in 2006 following a shipwreck with 10,000 tons of phosphoric acid on board. It can also be used in airports or metros to detect possible chemical attacks.
So, not all drones are necessarily bad… I just hope that Liverpool’s little experiment doesn’t extend to other cities or countries.
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