Drone With Facial Recognition & Obstacle Avoidance

[Airdale]

This is an interesting drone that adds some new wrinkles to both "follow me" modes and obstacle avoidance. Rather than just following and recording the person with the controller, it uses facial recognition algorithms like a camera. If there are people in it's main camera view it highlights them on the screen of the phone being used as a controller, then you tap the one you want it to follow. The other big improvement is in obstacle avoidance; this uses 13 black and white cameras with high speed shutters placed around the frame and can follow a person running through trees at up to 25 MPH. It also has a predictive mode designed to have it lead rather than follow the subject. In its present form it likely wouldn't be useful in finding and following a Sasquatch, but when the design team began working on it in 2014 they knew that the state of the art at the time wouldn't support what they wanted to accomplish. They counted on tech advancements sufficient to allow it down the road and four years later have a market ready product. In the not too distant future, I could see an autonomous drone building on this technology that could be released in an area where activity is occurring, lock on to a subject and track it for a predetermined amount of time, then use GPS  to return to point of origin.

 

 

[norseman]

Nice find!

[Incorrigible1]

I suggest trying it on the Tar Pit's Huntster. If it can track that large, hirsute BFF member, then bigfoot will be a cinch!

[SWWASAS]

I see one problem with the face recognition software in the drone.  I have a camera that can be programmed to recognize a significant other human and always have that face in focus when taking pictures.        But to get the recognition software to work, you have to have a live and cooperative subject to teach the camera.     I am not sure a 1967 film will do the trick with a drone,  not sure Patty has a typical BF face,   am not aware of any other BF images that might be good enough to work, and certainly do not know any BF that is inclined to cooperate.     Any camera developed would have to be developed with the sole intent to be used with BF.     That way the software could be tweeked looking for shaggy faced large shouldered humanoid.   Even if it locked in on a Grizzly Adams looking human now and then it would be far superior to a dumb drone that cannot find and track a shaggy humanoid.        

[Airdale]

I've actually had my phone's facial recognition trigger on my late cat's face, the handsome fellow in my avatar photo. Likely the eyes would be among the leading contenders for algorithms to trigger on, but they must vary among different platforms. While improvements in this particular machine's software may not ever be sufficient, the advancements are coming fast and furious in these technologies. I'm sure there are wildlife researchers who would love a device like this that they could program to track an animal being studied. Most of us have probably seen videos from a camera attached to a pet dog's collar as they explore beyond their owner's line of sight, but a bird's eye view would be much cooler.

 

I believe this unit retails for around $2,300 which is pretty rich for most of us, but prices will drop and features and performance improve as the technology matures. There would also be special considerations taken into account for tracking a Sasquatch such as the need to maintain a greater distance above the ground and from the subject, as well as predicting and avoiding the trajectory of thrown objects. Pretty amazing tech nevertheless!

Edited February 16, 2018 by Airdale
Error correction

[SWWASAS]

I have the technical ability and skills to construct a fairly advanced drone but would want to go the fixed wing route to increase duration of each mission.   I have designed and flown my own RC aircraft.      The problem with any RPV is takeoff and landing and in a forested area the difficulty of that is compounded.   Catapult launch and net recovery are used by small unit military RPV operators.    I cannot conceive of flying a drone in mountainous areas without a dedicated camera operator that can do that while I pilot the vehicle.    The longer the duration desired, the larger and more expensive such a RPV is.      Run it into a ridge or tree and you are out some money.    If someone in my area is interested in such a project contact me privately.    I would not even start the project without someone to operate the camera gear.   

[Airdale]

Duration is definitely the limiting factor with multi-rotor drones, though battery tech is improving fast, if not as rapidly as computers. I would think that the kind of collision avoidance the Skydio R1 utilizes could be built into a RPV, they already have some collision avoidance though I'm not sure what type of system it is based on. It just takes massive computing power to integrate 13 camera signals and convert them to control inputs.

[SWWASAS]

Duration can only be achieved by using the blimp concept or fixed wing Predator type RPV.    It is just not there with multi rotor drones who use a lot of energy just to stay in the air.     The drone advantage is size and vertical takeoff and landing.     In forest that is a good thing.         Based on my experience using full sized aircraft,  a drone or RPV  cannot get down in the trees and avoid them for long.    It is difficult enough when you are piloting a full sized aircraft.   So you need to figure out a minimum altitude for a sector based on terrain and just conduct a search pattern.   I had one suspected BF encounter during aerial surveillance and the BF or BF looking thing went around and hid behind trees when I went past.  It was brown, walked on two legs, and went and hid when I went past very low.   That hiding behavior is consistent with what we know about BF.    But it is also consistent with behavior of human poachers up to no good.     That makes noisy drones problematic.   If they hear one coming they will hide.    The blimp or fixed wing RPV can use slower turning motors and be a lot quieter.  The blimp duration can be many times greater because it does not have to use energy to stay in the air.   But transportation and storage are it's big drawbacks.    While detection and possibly tracking might be very advantageous using an RPV,       No one is going to be able to positively ID a subject from the air as a BF.     You will not be able to get close enough to differentiate between a BF and some guy in a costume.       I learned that using a full sized aircraft.    Using a 300MM telephoto lens you have to be scary low to get a detailed photograph of a human sized subject.     

Edited February 17, 2018 by SWWASAS

[Incorrigible1]

I find this disturbing:

 

 

[SWWASAS]

Me too.    I know the military is conducting experiments with hunter killer robots.    Sort of along the lines of the big robots in the Robo Cop movies.    Making things worse I read about an artificial intelligence computer that so scared its creators that they de-powered it when it apparently became self aware.  With self awareness comes self preservation.   And while we may be the creators of robots, we biological's are their most dangerous opponents.   

[hiflier]

Good grief.

[Airdale]

Is anyone reminded of the pair of raptors in the kitchen in the original Jurassic Park from 1993, or the helicopters pursuing the one surviving astronaut in Capricorn One. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 20, 2018 by Airdale

[Talmadge Mooseman]

Incorrigible1, I believe we aren't too far from having a robot like that that could be programmed to hunt down a Squatch.

 

I don't believe it will happen, because I believe the appropriate departments already know what they are dealing with.

 

But let's suppose we know a Bigfoot in an area is responsible for "disappearing" children ala Missing 411, something like what you posted could

be programmed to go on a search and destroy, )not really knowing if it got the right BF, btw.)

 

This is highly speculative, but not as ridiculous of a conversation as it would have been a few years ago.

 

Given what we think we know about Bigfoot's keen senses, robots would have a huge advantage over humans as hunters.  Their logic-driven minds would not be

distracted by decoy sounds, they'd be unaffected by most projectiles, infrasound and unlike humans, fearless.  An advanced robot could fly into the area drone-like,

lose the wings, and then stalk in for the hunt.

 

I think a BF would be highly confused by this new robotic creature.  They'd probably be able to relate it somehow to humans, but I think their "technology of the mind" would

have met it's match in our mechanical technology, though it might take another hundred years of development for the robot to be as stealthy and fluid as the sasquatch.

 

Let me be clear, I am not advocating hunting Sasquatch.  Personally, I'd feel terrible if I killed the creature, even if I hit it with my vehicle.  More than likely, these robots

will be used first as soldiers to take care of our enemies, and then on us...maybe like Robocop.   Hate to say it, but I think we are pretty hosed, mostly because

the powers in charge of the technology are nuts and will not bridle themselves in.  They'll just keep pushing the envelope.

 

 

 

 

[hiflier]

3 hours ago, Talmadge Mooseman said:

mostly because

the powers in charge of the technology are nuts and will not bridle themselves in.  They'll just keep pushing the envelope

 

Even if it's only a matter of being the best builder of such 'devices' in order to sell them either to private enterprises or the military, the nature of such competition will result in escalating the capabilities of these machines. It's why they push the envelope. But it's also indicative of what you say: they are nuts. One government sanctions the technology because opposing governments also sanctions it. They are effectively ALL nuts. But it will continue as other things like weapons build up have UNTIL they all quit escalating together. 

 

One has to wonder what discussions go on behind closed doors between governments regarding the unbelievable mindless destruction an uncontrolled army of these machines could wreak.  For if the people that have entered the security codes controlling the activities of automated killers get killed themselves then who is going to stop the machines in their mission to destroy the 'enemy' Humans they have been programmed to destroy?

 

That's a worse case scenario for the movies of course, unless the large EMP defenses against that type of threat is somehow rendered ineffective. THEN there will come the nightmare.  Kind of interesting to think that a clever imperialistic policy would design a strategy in which the robot army would cause the EMP weapons to be initiated by which the defending country wipes out its OWN electronic counter attack. Folks, it's why things are, and are going, underground.

Edited March 8, 2018 by hiflier

[SWWASAS]

Problem with robots hunting BF is that they are machines and very noisy hence easy to avoid but they can sit still and wait  for a curious BF.    Lots of deer hunters in tree stands have had a BF blunder past.  The passive / smart camera idea is one I have been kicking around.    Seed an area with them and have them activate when they detect footstep noise. No IR to give them away.  When activated they turn and take a panoramic 360 photo.    No good approaching from behind like a tree mounted trail cam.