Darpa shows off 1.8-gigapixel drone, can spot a person from 20K feet

Re:Darpa shows off 1.8-gigapixel drone, can spot a person fr... by sliverstorm on Monday January 28, 2013 @01:27PM (#5129801)

You don't necessarily need a wireless link. You can always use preprogrammed routes. Scouts can simply log data and return with it later, much like the spy planes of old using film cameras. Attacks can similarly be preprogrammed; bombers in war, for example, tend to have fixed targets.

It's the interceptors that would prove the most difficult to operate autonomously; they are the only one whose primary purpose is never fixed.

Rolling with the idea of a drone dystopia, as drones get smart enough you could even rely on the drone to make its own decisions and respond without an external operator.

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Re:Darpa shows off 1.8-gigapixel drone, can spot a person fr... by rayiner on Monday January 28, 2013 @01:33PM (#5129844)

One of the things that makes cheap drones possible is easily accessible, off-the-shelf, cheap and lightweight computer/GPS/wireless hardware. Losing GPS and having to use inertial guidance makes the problem a lot more expensive and complicated, and advanced AI is like manned missions to mars--always further off than it looks.

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Re:Darpa shows off 1.8-gigapixel drone, can spot a person fr... by sliverstorm on Monday January 28, 2013 @01:36PM (#5129861)

Ok, so you are specifically referring to GPS. I agree, GPS is important for cheap and easy navigation. I was presuming you were talking about a link to a base-station.

Of course, aren't all the GPS satellites already government satellites in the first place? Seems like they wouldn't need to jam the signal, they could just shut them down, or maybe GPS can be set to require authentication...

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