[extropy-chat] Tiny autonomous aircraft, again.

[Dan Clemmensen]

Please have a look that the BBC article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4185648.stm

The main points are:
   tiny: (6 inches)
   autonomous
   quiet
   reconfigurable wing geometry.

We've seen this all before, but it appears to be getting very real. In 
my opinion, near-term deployment would use human remote pilots. The 
autonomy stuff is sexy but not fundamental. The researchers focus on 
autonomous flight. That's a nice academic goal, but in reality, 
real-time evaluation of the information will require a human, so you may 
as well have a human pilot to perform both functions.

These little "birds" would be a great adjunct to a pervasive system of 
fixed cameras.