drones

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Africa’s First Humanitarian Drone Testing Corridor Launched in Malawi

Press Release | UNICEF | June 29, 2017

The Government of Malawi and UNICEF today launched an air corridor to test potential humanitarian use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones. The corridor is the first in Africa and one of the first globally with a focus on humanitarian and development use. It is centred on Kasungu Aerodrome, in central Malawi, with a 40km radius (80km diameter) and is designed to provide a controlled platform for the private sector, universities and other partners to explore how UAVs can be used to help deliver services that will benefit communities...

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Drone Enthusiasts Use Open Source Hardware To Drive Innovation

Aarti Shahani | NPR.org | July 8, 2013

One drone-maker in Silicon Valley has a vision: iPhones with wings populating the sky, collecting data about everything. And to get there, he's enlisting tens of thousands of his fellow drone enthusiasts. His civilian drone company is open source — a business model that's completely contrary to the military's model of proprietary secrets. Read More »

Drone Warfare turns to 'Open Source'

John Breeden II | Government Computer News (GCN) | June 20, 2013

The United States is becoming more and more dependent on unmanned aerial systems for everything from surveillance to actual attack missions. In 2012, the Air Force ordered up hundreds of new drones to bolster its forces. Read More »

Drones for Healthcare Powered by 'Open Source'

About a week after Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines, one of the Direct Relief partnering organizations called Team Rubicon sought to determine the operational status of the Carigara District Hospital, located northwest of the city of Tacloban. Travel along damaged roads was difficult and slow. Yet, the assessment team was able to provide local officials and aid groups with a rapid and highly accurate visual analysis of damage to the Carigara District Hospital by deploying the latest in close proximity aerial imaging technology, using a Huginn X1 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or civil surveillance drone. 

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Drones Spread Wings From War Zones To Disaster Areas

While lawmakers around the world struggle to keep up with the growth in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) — commonly known as drones — innovation and community participation are changing how this weapon of modern warfare can be used for humanitarian purposes. Read More »

FAA Asks: Please Don't Shoot Down The Drones

Abby Ohlheiser | The Atlantic Wire | July 19, 2013

Earlier this week, one Colorado town floated the idea of letting its residents buy hunting permits for drones. Now, the FAA has responded to the proposal by telling Americans to please stop thinking about shooting down drones. Read More »

Facebook’s Drones Could Bring Internet To The Developing World—And Stick It To Mobile Carriers

Adam Pasick | Quartz | March 4, 2014

Facebook is in talks to buy a drone company called Titan Aerospace for $60 million, according to TechCrunch. The New Mexico-based start-up is is developing autonomous solar-powered aircraft that can stay aloft for up to five years at near-orbital heights, which could make them ideal for beaming internet access to remote areas. Read More »

Initial CES 2015 Observations

John Lynn | EMR & HIPAA | January 5, 2015

Yesterday was the start of the International CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2015 conference in Las Vegas...

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Make Way For The Human Flesh Search Engines

Scott Smith | Quartz | April 19, 2013

The robots are coming. Indeed, it may just be time for Americans to welcome more scrutiny into their lives. The United States has had surveillance cameras for decades, and facial recognition software tied to some of the thousands of cameras in use in public places for most of the past 10 years... Read More »

Newly Released Drone Records Reveal Extensive Military Flights In US

Jennifer Lynch | Electronic Frontier Foundation | December 5, 2012

Today EFF posted several thousand pages of new drone license records and a new map that tracks the location of drone flights across the United States. These records, received as a result of EFF’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), come from state and local law enforcement agencies, universities and—for the first time—three branches of the U.S. military... Read More »

No Existing Technology Can Ensure Drone Safety, GAO Official Says

Bob Brewin | Nextgov | February 19, 2013

No suitable technology currently exists to ensure that drones will “sense and avoid” other aircraft, Gerald Dillingham of the Government Accountability Office recently told lawmakers, adding that the Federal Aviation Administration lacks sufficient dedicated frequency spectrum to operate unmanned aircraft systems in domestic airspace. Read More »

NSA Surveillance Is An Attack On American Citizens, Says Noam Chomsky

Fiona Harvey | The Guardian | June 19, 2013

The actions of the US government in spying on its and other countries' citizens have been sharply criticised by Noam Chomsky, the prominent political thinker, as attacks on democracy and the people. Read More »

The Border Patrol Wants To Arm Drones

Philip Bump | The Atlantic Wire | July 2, 2013

Documents obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation from the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Patrol indicate that the agency is close to finalizing payload standards for its drone aircraft. Among the things the CBP might want to use in its unmanned aircraft: "non-lethal weapons designed to immobilize" targets. Read More »

The Brave New World Of Unmanned Vehicles

Vivian Wagner | TechNewsWorld | July 27, 2013

While the FAA, other legal and regulatory agencies, and privacy advocates catch up in terms of the legality and ethics o,f such uses of unmanned vehicles, manufacturers are envisioning a future in which UAVs will be a prevalent part of everyday life. "It's going to spark a lot of creativity," said UAV manufacturer Zenon Dragan. Read More »

The Obama Administration Hasn't Ruled Out Drone Attacks On US Soil

Adam Clark Estes | Atlantic Wire | March 5, 2013

A strange thing happened on Tuesday. Just a few hours after an airline pilot spotted an unidentified "drone" hovering a few miles from JFK airport, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that drones strikes on United States soil were not out of the question. Coincidence? We think so. Read More »