Hasta La Gadget!

You’ll likely miss 3D Robotics on first pass. The company’s San Diego R&D facility is headquartered in an unassuming building amongst similarly nondescript offices in a maze of a business park. Enter through the back and you’ll find yourself in the middle of a small manufacturing assembly, where industrial Pick and Place machines buzz loudly and a handful of women are QAing finished product. Until earlier this month, the site was mostly off the radar, save for a devoted group of online enthusiasts. Then, Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson announced he was leaving the magazine in order to head up the company.

Anderson’s off grabbing lunch as we arrive — like us, just off a flight from the East Coast for a brief visit before jumping on yet another plane. He’s in transition at the moment, as the head of both Wired and 3D Robotics, trying out his keycard for the first time as we set up our film equipment to interview the newly minted executive for an upcoming Engadget Show segment. Anderson’s ties to the company go back to its inception, however, co-founding 3D Robotics with Jordi Muñoz, a 19-year-old living in Tijuana when the two first met through Anderson’s DIY Drones online community.

Continue reading 3D Robotics’ Chris Anderson discusses a drone-filled future (video)

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War isn’t always a bad thing – sometimes it’s been necessary for sweeping changes to take place. But it is, for the most part, a tragic time. Because aside from risking the lives of soldiers, there’s also the matter of taking away the lives of innocent civilians. These days, fewer human lives are risked in the skies as the military uses drones to carry out a lot of their bombing.

As you can see, it’s pretty well-documented. And now with the click of a button, you can view images of drone-hit areas in war zones like Afghanistan, where hundreds, if not thousands, of buildings and other structures have been leveled by these blasts.

This is all possible through Dronestagram, which makes use of image-sharing platforms like Tumblr and Instagram to share these images of destruction.

Behind the project is James Bridle, who explains his motivation behind it:

Wadi al Abu Jabara. Beit al Ahan. Jaar. Dhamar. Al-Saeed. Tappi. Bulandkhel. Hurmuz. Khaider khel. These are the names of places. They are towns, villages, junctions and roads. They are the names of places where people live and work, where there are families and schools. They are the names of places in Afghanistan and Yemen, which are linked by one thing: they have each been the location of drone strikes in the past couple of months.

Follow Dronestagram on Tumblr and Instagram and see the damage for yourself.

[via Dvice]

You know what they say – a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and in the case of the US military with their vaunted army of Predator and Reaper drones, it was discovered that our men and women in uniform have failed to secure the transmissions of more than 50% of their drone fleet – this bit of information coming about four years after discovering that militants were already tapping its drone video feeds. Back in 2008, a Shiite militant was apprehended after his laptop carried files of intercepted drone video feeds, where the Pentagon then pledged to retrofit their collection of drones with spanking new communications protocols and encrypted transceivers to avoid interceptions.

Four years down the road, it could be oversight, or complacency, that saw only “30-50%” of America’s Predators and Reapers are running on fully encrypted transmissions. As for the rest of the fleet, its communications will be completely secure until 2014. Do you think that this is a foolhardy decision, or could it be due to the lack of sufficient funds to make sure that all their drones are fully secure and encrypted?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Spy drone cracks Wi-Fi networks and cell data, The US Navy Can Now Launch Missiles From Unmanned Boats,

Advances in unmanned military tools and vehicles have come on leaps and bounds, but, until now, we haven’t seen a weapon firing drone operating in the seas. A recent test taking part offshore near Maryland saw several missiles launched from a new remote-controlled inflatable-hulled ship. While the Navy has used drones before for mine clearing and other defensive tasks, the small boat (similar to that pictured above) is the first experiment to involve true offensive capabilities. The almost zodiac-like craft has been an ongoing project over recent years, and contains a fully automated system which the Navy calls a “Precision Engagement Module” which uses an Mk-49 mounting with a dual missile launcher manufactured by Rafael. The hope is that such vehicles could patrol the coastline, or serve as a first defense against pirates, and other such small, fast-moving seafaring dangers. If you want to catch it in action, head past the break for the video, but don’t be fooled. While it might look like a series of misses, the Navy claims this is just a trick of the camera angle, with all six missiles apparently making contact.

Continue reading US Navy tests first 11-meter missile-firing sea drone (video)

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US Navy tests first 11-meter missile-firing sea drone (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Oct 2012 05:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 is many good things, but “long-ranged” isn’t what comes to mind with a 165-foot maximum distance between pilot and quadrocopter. Not to be daunted, Alcatel-Lucent has conducted a test with an ad hoc LTE network, a USB modem and a smartphone to see just how far the remote-controlled aircraft could go on 4G. In practice, quite far: thanks in part to the inherently wide coverage of the 800MHz band in France, the team flew the AR.Drone more than 3,280 feet (one kilometer), all while streaming 720p video of the farmland below. Besides giving us ideas for a North by Northwest remake, the flight emphasized the possibilities that come when we have access to a long-distance wireless link with high bandwidth, such as monitoring crops or some very literal field journalism. The challenge will be convincing Alcatel-Lucent to share its trick and let us pester our not-so-next-door neighbors.

[Thanks, Vincent]

Continue reading Alcatel-Lucent flies Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 over 3,280 feet using LTE: reach out and buzz someone (video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

Alcatel-Lucent flies Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 over 3,280 feet using LTE: reach out and buzz someone (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Oct 2012 22:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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