
The Drone That’s Saving Ottawa From Poop - chaosmachine
http://modernfarmer.com/2014/05/introducing-goosebuster-protecting-ottawas-beaches-poisonous-poo/
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lowleveldrone
The City of Ottawa blames geese for E. coli despite routinely dumping raw
sewage into the Ottawa river due to linked storm and sanitary sewers. The
beaches are closed after significant rain storms.

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trhway
Parents (ie. voters) see the poop, they don't see the sewage dumping.

In general, it is like people blaming cats for decimating birds population (in
SF parks for example) while people happily gather wild birds' eggs (seems it
is popular in Asian cuisine as i saw only Asians doing it).

Note: cats actually protect birds population from rats (who is actually able
to eat eggs) and by occasionally eating an ill bird (we've been through this
with wolves). Unfortunately cats can't protect birds from people.

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ChuckMcM
Of course you gamify this, imagine a drone that can return 'home' and land on
a charger (this is quite doable) when it has low power. Now at a POV camera
and WiFi link.

Now setup of video game 'drone consoles' that for $5/15 minutes you can fly a
drone and score points by scaring off geese. Some failsafes that don't let the
operator fly out of the area, into the water etc. And voila.

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PhearTheCeal
Or host a programming competition to create the best AI to do the
scaring/recharging automatically.

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ChuckMcM
An even better [1] competition would be figure out how to herd them to an easy
to clean up place, and _then_ get them to take off :-)

[1] "... and they tend to empty their cloacas upon takeoff," \--
[http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/08/science/08qna.html](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/08/science/08qna.html)

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comatose_kid
Ottawa finally makes Hacker News. Too bad poop-drones are the reason. Some day
I have to write a blog post on why I left Ottawa for Silicon Valley.

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PeterWhittaker
A little off topic, but since you're there and I'm here, what are the top
three things you miss about Bytown and what are the three things you so don't
miss that just thinking about them for a moment causes you to forgive whatever
grief you are experiencing in SV?

While we're at it, what are the three best things about SV, and what are the
three things that sometimes make you wish you were back here? (They may be
different from the three best things about Ottawa.)

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comatose_kid
Just to be clear, I am now in Silicon Valley after spending a couple of years
in Ottawa. Miss: 1) Close to friends & family 2) Really great activities/camps
for younger kids 3) Lots of parks, green space 4) Canadians are really more
polite, and the pace is more relaxed. 5) People lead healthier lives, many
more people outside (this does not stop me from doing same in SV, but culture
is more work and convenience/car oriented). 6) Cost of living

Don't miss: 1) Tech scene is anemic. Tech companies (even the shiny new ones
that are moderately successful) are conservative and can be a little arrogant
when it comes to hiring. It doesn't matter how capable you are, as an employee
you have little leverage. 1.5) Investors don't know much beyond
telecommunications. 2) After the valley, Ottawa seems really small. 3) Um
yeah, winter (although I surprisingly enjoyed taking my son to hockey on early
mornings) 4) Not a lot of ambitious people.

Silicon Valley: Likes: 1) Much greater depth of talent, not just in new
technologies, but in product, strategy, business development, etc. 2) More
going on culturally. 3) More wealth. 4) Weather. 5) Environment which seems to
germinate most new ideas in tech, probably due to employee mobility which has
a cross-pollination effect as they move from org to org.

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stcredzero
High speed airships are probably a better architecture for this application
than n-copters. There are remove controlled airships that can do 30 mph and
they don't need to expend energy to stay aloft. They also won't fall like a
rock out of the sky, so long as their gasbags haven't been punctured.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ecSXRK9ZPk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ecSXRK9ZPk)

Depending on the frequency of the wolf-call, speakers to produce them and
their power system could be made quite light.

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dignati
I'd guess they aren't well suited to fly at the coast because of the high wind
speeds. I would imagine that it's quite hard to get the blimp down when it's
caught in thermal updraft also.

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stcredzero
True. These things would have to cope with winds of up to 75 mph to be active
most of the time.

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ableal
And next, for our convenience, devices hovering ten feet overhead trailing -
and probably also blasting - ads.

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Theodores
I think we have a winner for the $1000000 'Drones for Good' prize!

The United Arab Emirates “Drones for Good” Award:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7733697](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7733697)

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mschuster91
Biggest problem: it doesn't look like the drones have an anti-collision
software built in, so a single goose running amok/panicking is enough to sink
the drone...

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math0ne
Bird police eh? I'm not too sure this is a good thing or not, I mean those
birds have a right to be there too right?

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Kluny
They don't vote and they don't pay rent, so they can gtfo!

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Serow225
It's sad that I knew this was about Canada geese as soon as I read the title
;)

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liyanage
We _so_ need a drone that saves us from poop in San Francisco.

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techwatching
Its not a drone. Its an RC copter.

And, judging from the video, why does this require a drone? Could't a dude in
boat achieve the same ends just as easily?

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trhway
works for geese. Will definitely work for people. Khosla may find it very
useful.

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g8oz
Canada Geese: They make urban green spaces unusable. Kill them all and let God
sort it out.

