[LINK] Eyes in the sky: how unmanned aircraft could patrol our beaches (and more)

[Jan Whitaker]

At 04:23 PM 12/03/2012, David Boxall wrote:
>...
>In late February, Surf Life Saving Australia unveiled a new monitoring
>project called Eyes in the Sky. The plan is to use unmanned aircraft to
>help prevent drownings at unpatrolled beaches and to monitor
>environmental issues along coastal zones. The lifesavers plan to have
>the aircraft flying over Australian beaches by next summer.

OK, connect the dots for me between "surveillance" and "prevent 
drownings at unpatrolled beaches". Is the little drone going to fly 
down and help the person in trouble? Alert someone to come pull the 
person out? [I'll leave out the impact of wind along coastlines and 
the need for someone to be running the drone in some way who could be 
present and actually take a recovery boat out to actually do 
something in the physical world.]

I'll reserve judgement, but this just seems like another ploy on 
behalf of the marketing department to oversell something. Same as 
with the claim that speed cameras reduce accidents.

Jan



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
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Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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