
Drone Maker DJI Adds Technology to Limit Where Its Machines Can Fly - digital55
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/11/17/drone-maker-dji-adds-technology-to-limit-where-its-machines-can-fly/
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brenschluss
Savvy move on DJI's part. They probably know that the DRM will be cracked out
pretty soon, and I bet they don't care. The point is that they can still claim
compliance/friendliness, making sure that 1) the drone market keeps on
growing, and that 2) their PR image becomes one of a 'responsible professional
drone company '.

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donatj
There's so much hysteria over toy flying helicopters which I hesitate to call
drones, I don't get it. If an airplane did hit a drone would it really be
worse than say a goose? Except for the very large professional ones, they're
very light and mostly plastic.

Mythbusters more or less proved the consumer models are basically harmless to
humans and couldn't break the skin.

As always something new comes along and people are terrified. It's our stupid
nature.

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tomswartz07
The propellers can absolutely break skin.

A commercial quadcopter motor typically runs at 1000KV, meaning that it spins
at 1000 RPM per Volt. Most batteries are 12-14 volts.

Even for little plastic bits, if they're spinning at 12,000RPM, theres a lot
of kinetic energy behind them.

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mattlutze
There was, ironically, a MythBusters episode[0] on last night in which they
were flying quadcopter drones into dummy torsos (complete with major neck
arteries) to see what happened.

I'll admit I was surprised to see that, indeed, they were able to puncture
through that poor soul's ballistic gel neck and sever the "aorta."

0: [http://www.discovery.com/tv-
shows/mythbusters/videos/drone-d...](http://www.discovery.com/tv-
shows/mythbusters/videos/drone-decapitation-high-speed/)

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falcolas
Yes, with carbon fiber blades and a custom octocopter designed to carry 20lb
payloads. Neither of which applies to the commonly available multirotors on
the market.

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donatj
Yep, the non-carbon fiber one just bent in the episode.

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wyager
Great, more DRM is always so nice.

There was a talk at defcon this year by a Chinese researcher (I forget her
name) where she A) spoofed the GPS signal so that a GPS-restricted copter
(which I guess already exists in China) could fly in a no-fly zone and B)
convinced a bunch of copters flying in a park that they were, in fact,
suddenly in a no-fly zone, and so they promptly crashed.

It is not the job of my machines to police my behaviour on behalf of the
government. If a machine is physically capable of doing something, there
should always be a way for me to do it. A warning (e.g. A restricted airspace
alert) is fine, but the technology should not presume to override my commands
based on its (easily confused) interpretation of the law. Users should control
machines, not the other way around.

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pmx
This would be a great thing to have "open" so that any flight software can
consume the feed of no-fly areas and adhere to them. It could either be self-
imposed or required by law but either way it would go a long way to improving
the image that "drones" currently have.

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tomswartz07
I applaud this.

My opinion is that the _vast_ majority of the issues are caused by people who
buy a drone off the shelf and take it up as high as it can go on their first
flight.

This move will help stop general folks who have no idea about the rules and
regulations from flying where they should not.

It's not going to stop the folks that (arguably) should know better, but it's
an exellent start.

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TeMPOraL
There's a problem though - most off-the-shelf drones don't have a GPS.

But generally, I agree. An _easy to circumvent_ lock seems like a good idea.
Enough of an obstacle to block general population from doing their stupid
things, while still allowing those who know what they're doing to exercise the
full capabilities of the machine (taking the responsibility for eventual
damage).

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tomswartz07
> Enough of an obstacle to block general population from doing their stupid
> things, while still allowing those who know what they're doing to exercise
> the full capabilities of the machine (taking the responsibility for eventual
> damage).

This is exactly it. I'm 1000% okay with this. I hope that the eventual DOT
regulations are following this line of thought.

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narrator
The drone regulations will be used to control robots in the future. All uses
of robots with advanced AI will be limited by such rules. Self driving cars
are next, especially since a self-driving car could easily be programmed to
commit a criminal act.

Robots will put everyone out of a job because only a certain few will be
allowed to program robots that could hypothetically commit criminal acts.
Writing a program for a drone or a self-driving car will require the same
level of scrutiny as developing a medical device or aviation flight control
systems.

That's the problem with our robotic future: the technology will be controlled
by a priesthood of highly regulated experts that work for large corporations
because the technologies are considered too dangerous to be left in the hands
of average people.

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mhb
Phil Greenspun's comments:
[http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/2015/11/13/drones-in-
cont...](http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/2015/11/13/drones-in-controlled-
airspace/)

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slm_HN
His experience, that DJI drones are allowed to fly near airports, is the exact
opposite of my experience.

I was in the San Juan islands doing some aerial photography with a DJI Phantom
III. On Orcas island I unknowingly setup next to an airport. It was a very
small airport behind a treed hill, so I didn't realize where it was. The drone
considered it a no-fly zone and refused to take off.

So I consider it unlikely that gigantic Logan airport isn't in the system,
while tiny Orcas Island airport is in the system.

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mattlutze
I would be interested to know how on-demand the No Fly zones can be updated --
interesting tool to, say, ensure there aren't any amateur camera-copters
floating around accident scenes, public demonstrations an the like.

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at-fates-hands
This also raises the question of who's making these decisions and why. It
makes you think if these decisions could be open to influence somehow.

Say a rich tenet in a NYC penthouse doesn't want any drones flying around his
building. How do you enact a geofence around his building and then enforce
that?

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Kristine1975
Get the drone's ID (assuming there's such a thing) and report it to the
police.

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at-fates-hands
Apparently this is in the works:

[http://www.dailydot.com/technology/lightcense-drone-
identifi...](http://www.dailydot.com/technology/lightcense-drone-
identification-system/)

 _Instead of the standard alphanumerical plates that are affixed to cars,
drones would be equipped with a set of bright, multicolored LED lights. The
lights would flash in a unique sequence that would correlate to the owner. A
smartphone app would identify the pattern and search the database for the
operator the vehicle is registered to._

pretty ingenious if you ask me.

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ultramancool
Great, DRM on drones. This'll be fun to crack at least.

Out of curiosity, what does it do if GPS is unavailable? From what I've heard,
jamming GPS is pretty easy.

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JumpCrisscross
> _DRM on drones. This 'll be fun to crack at least._

You'd lose manufacturer recourse in case something goes wrong.

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ultramancool
They said that about rooting my phone but I still returned it just fine.

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jellicle
>Self-Driving Car Maker XXXX Adds Technology To Limit Where Its Machines Can
Drive

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zardo
The intent is usually to keep them on the road.

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ccozan
Yes, but what stops US Gov to ask car manufacturers to automatically stop
engine ( electric or ICE ) if you come too close to, let's say, White House?
Or follow a certain road which may lead to some secret facility.

This is doable even now.

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TeMPOraL
Why should you want to stop them? US Gov should have a perfect right to do
that (in the US, that is), that's the point of having a government.

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geggam
_marks that drone off his list_

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celticninja
if it can be coded in it can be coded out.

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joosters
So? It's still useful for most drone users - I would guess that many of the
problem drone flights are caused by people being unaware of the flight
regulations. These geofences will stop them from accidentally causing
problems.

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celticninja
of course, if this is its aim then it will work just fine but it would be
trivial to override by someone that wanted to.

