TECNOLOGÍA. (La Era del Dron)
Millones de dólares de investigación de desarrollo militar han dado como resultado los drones que ahora se están adaptando a nuevos usos. Es una industria tan novedosa que aún se están descubriendo posibles nuevas aplicaciones.
Transcript
00:00Look up. Before you think about seeing a drone, are they a nuisance?
00:06They are fun, but they can also do dangerous things.
00:10Are they the big brother?
00:12It's the eye that looks from the sky. It's the no-go of surveillance.
00:17Will our way of seeing the world change?
00:20Now we can see the world from a bird's-eye view and not necessarily from the window of an airplane.
00:25It's going to lead to very complex things, really complex.
00:29It could be a scary world. It could also be a utopia. Who knows?
00:34Drones. They have earned the reputation of being the most effective killing machines in war zones around the planet.
00:42Now that military technology is reaching our skies.
00:46It is estimated that by 2020 there will be 20,000 drones flying in North America.
00:52The robots are fascinating, but we also tend to associate them with war scenarios,
00:58to see them as military instruments that invade our environment.
01:02Millions of dollars of research and military development have resulted in drones that are now adapting to new uses.
01:10There are them of all shapes and sizes, from those that look like natural-sized aircraft to this.
01:18Large sample fairs that used to be dedicated to the military industry
01:23focus their attention on a new global market in expansion.
01:29AUBSI is the great exhibition of the robotics industry,
01:33where you can find everything from cameras that crawl on the ground or that climb stairs,
01:37to video game controllers and even real avatars.
01:48But currently, what is most talked about is drones and the change of military applications to civilian ones.
01:57Now that the war in Afghanistan is coming to an end,
02:00we are focusing on the international commercial market of services to the oil and gas industry.
02:08This industry, in the first three years of integration,
02:11has the potential to create 70,000 new jobs in North America, and it is going to get bigger.
02:17It seems that drones are going to be the next boom, and everyone wants a piece of the cake.
02:22In Ohio, we have a solid base to take this industry to our state.
02:28The University of Dakota has a program to train unmanned aircraft pilots.
02:33There is a lot of demand and the companies succeed.
02:36Many jobs are created and great benefits are generated.
02:39There is great potential.
02:41Every research group that does a study says that it is going to be a multi-million dollar industry.
02:47And Canada has the possibility to become the world leader.
02:52It is such a new industry that is still discovering possible applications.
02:56They have been sold to Chile for forest applications, burners for the oil and gas industry.
03:02There are many possibilities in the commercial sector that have nothing to do with the military.
03:07Rick Anderson was the director of the magazine Wired, but he left it to create his own emerging company, 3D Robotics.
03:14This is one of the many types of drones there are, a quadcopter.
03:18What makes it a drone is that it has a brain, it can fly alone, it is autonomous.
03:23Five years ago it was military technology and it cost a million dollars.
03:27Two years ago it was a very high-end commercial product and it cost 30,000 dollars.
03:32This one costs 750.
03:34The technology of smartphones, sensors, GPS, processors, allowed to build low-cost drones.
03:41The same sensors and processors are used, but arranged in a different way.
03:47Now that anyone can afford to have a drone, people are letting their imagination fly.
03:56Welcome to Maker Faire in San Francisco.
03:59Here thousands of very creative people show the public the products of their imagination and skill.
04:08Here at Maker Faire we gather more than 80 creators with more than 100 projects.
04:13People know Kickstarter as a financing platform and the creators come because it is a way to build their initial community.
04:22We make the first smart lighter to help stop smoking.
04:26We make an extruder for 3D printers that allows you to work with materials like icing for pies,
04:32which makes printing in 3D more interesting.
04:35Here drones are one of the great attractions for amateur inventors and the modeling community.
04:42It is a community because we help each other and learn together.
04:46It is not just about flying quadcopters, but about sharing technology and sharing our experience with others.
04:54But drone duels are what draws the most attention.
04:57This is the first official edition of the drone game at Maker Faire.
05:02Let the games begin!
05:04Basically, they are aerial robot fights,
05:07and we have invited all the pilots from our community to come and show what they are worth.
05:14Oh no!
05:15Oh, it's in the net!
05:18Does anyone have a shotgun?
05:20My combat drone is ready to compete.
05:23For less than $200 you have a device that almost flies alone.
05:26You release the control and it stays where it is.
05:31It is very exciting when you are in the air competing,
05:34fighting against another flying robot.
05:38No!
05:39The white one has gone to the ground.
05:41We are living the first steps of an incredible industry.
05:45For $300 anyone can build their personalized drone,
05:49but most do not want to build it, just fly it.
05:52Tim Reuter has designed a drone that can fly anywhere.
05:56The idea behind the pocket drone was to take a large part of the advanced features of open source kits
06:02and incorporate them into a consumer product that made this activity more accessible.
06:08We wanted to create a design that was more practical, that could be carried over,
06:12so that when you reach the top of a mountain,
06:14you can make a panoramic view of yourself and all your friends with something that fits in a backpack.
06:20Part of the attraction of the pocket drone is to make it follow you.
06:24What follow me technology does is follow a smartphone
06:27or a tablet connected to a GPS that you have on top
06:30and keep a fixed distance from that GPS signal.
06:35So if you're going to do a bike ride, you can film yourself doing any kind of crazy stuff,
06:40or you can follow a football field as you advance and score a goal,
06:45or as you play any sort of game.
06:48Is the public interested in this technology?
06:51The Kickstarter campaign asked for $35,000 to develop the pocket drone
06:56and raised almost $1 million.
06:58They started production immediately.
07:00I left my job and since then I've been working on Air Troyes and the pocket drone full time.
07:06We want to use them to film their children's first bike ride,
07:09to go over the roof of their house,
07:12and we wanted to create a design that would democratize this and make it more affordable.
07:19Other companies have been successful in making accessible drones.
07:23The Parrot AR can be piloted with a smartphone or a tablet.
07:27It's so easy that anyone can use it, for the despair of numerous pets.
07:31The DJI quadcopter has GPS positioning and a mobile camera.
07:37Suddenly we can see the world in a completely new way.
07:43This new accessibility has opened the door to new applications for flying robotic cameras,
07:49weddings, reports for the real estate market, or the ultimate selfie.
07:53We call them aerial robots, but people don't care if they're robots or not.
07:57They just want to mount the camera and upload an incredible video to YouTube.
08:01Now we can put high-resolution cameras in the air.
08:05For the first time in history, we can see the world from a bird's-eye view,
08:09and not necessarily from the window of a plane.
08:15The Air Troyes is a new technology.
08:18The possibility of seeing the world from a drone's view is changing the way we see everything,
08:23from sports to nature, and also the news.
08:27In fact, they have given rise to a new type of reporting, drone journalism.
08:32One of the first viral videos showed the aggressiveness of the Turkish police
08:37against the protesters in the Taksim Square in Istanbul in 2013.
08:41This technology has been used for a long time.
08:44The quality of the images you can get for several hundred dollars
08:48has really changed everything.
08:51Suddenly, brutal tactics are exposed to the eyes of the whole world.
08:55With images like these, it is not surprising that the police respond.
08:59Oh, my God!
09:02Matt Wade is a journalism professor at the University of Nebraska
09:06and winner of a Pulitzer Prize.
09:09I was at a didgeridoo competition,
09:11in the south of California, in 2011.
09:14I saw that a company was selling an autonomous aerial photography platform,
09:18and I thought about all the floods, forest fires, hurricanes, tornadoes,
09:23all the disasters that I had covered as a reporter,
09:27and I thought, I could have done reports with damage assessments in a few hours
09:31if I had had something like that.
09:34And I said to my dean,
09:37why don't we set up a drone laboratory to investigate this?
09:41Because it raises all kinds of new questions
09:44about how journalists do their job.
09:47Some companies already use drones.
09:50For Lake Mead Beer, the distribution of beer to fishing cabins
09:53in the ice with drones was a total success,
09:56and Amazon will use drones to make deliveries.
09:59Amazon is serious about it.
10:02What we still don't know is whether those first drones
10:05will make deliveries from warehouses to buyers,
10:08or only transport between warehouses. We'll see.
10:11But the drone they've developed has both the ability to fly vertically
10:15and in a helicopter's suspension,
10:18as well as the reach and speed of a plane.
10:21When it arrives at its destination, the drone stays in suspension
10:24at a safe distance and unhooks the load to the ground
10:27with a cable to guarantee a safe landing.
10:30Impressive. But we don't have to wait for the future
10:33to see drones that are doing useful work.
10:36ING Engineering, a company from Ottawa,
10:38is developing Canadian drones in Afghanistan
10:41and knows very well how useful they can be,
10:44for example, in rescue operations.
10:47Rescue is a great application of this technology.
10:50A search and rescue operation
10:53or a beautiful sunny day is never undertaken.
10:56It's always a dark and stormy night.
10:59Someone has had a problem and we have to go out and find them.
11:02Drones can fly over damaged land
11:05and use video cameras with heat sensors
11:08to capture lost drones without the risk of a pilot
11:11and even provide them with supplies.
11:14You may be using a robot actually to provide someone
11:17with a means of communication.
11:20If you can speak to an individual,
11:23their chances of survival are doubled.
11:26And that's what you can achieve with robotic aviation.
11:29Chief Doug Green of Saskatoon Police in Canada
11:32only had a small traffic control drone,
11:35but he managed to save a life with it.
11:38It was evident that he had been injured in the accident,
11:41but in a standing search of the area,
11:44no injured person was found.
11:47There was a thermal sensation of 20 degrees below zero.
11:50They had spoken on the phone with him.
11:53He had a head injury, he was disoriented,
11:56and he was very cold.
11:59Shortly after the call, his mobile phone ran out of battery.
12:02Then the chief of Saskatoon's Rural Police
12:05remembered that our drone was equipped with a camera
12:08and heat signatures.
12:11They took off the drone and immediately discovered
12:14a heat spot on the edge of a group of trees.
12:17Chief Green was able to direct the rescue team
12:20to the injured man who was unconscious
12:23and on the verge of death.
12:26We took him to Saskatoon's hospital in an ambulance
12:29and gave him an IV several days later.
12:32The rescue of Saskatoon showed the potential
12:35of having eyes in the sky.
12:38It is a tool that we have at our disposal.
12:41Four months later,
12:44another drone of the Canadian police
12:47was the protagonist of another happy ending.
12:50Canada has well-defined rules for the commercial use of drones,
12:53but in the United States it is another story.
12:56Since 2007, all commercial use of drones
12:59was prohibited by the FAA, the Federal Aviation Agency.
13:02There is a new regulation on the way,
13:05but for many it does not go fast enough.
13:08Robinson is a specialist in search and rescue of Texas.
13:11He tried to avoid the prohibition of the FAA
13:14by founding a non-profit organization.
13:17We have already carried out operations
13:20in 30 states and 4 countries.
13:23We have found up to now 10 people
13:26and we have rescued 2 victims alive.
13:29At the beginning of this decade,
13:32Robinson was one of the pioneers of drone technology.
13:35He built his own prototype
13:38and founded an airline
13:41specialized in search and rescue.
13:44Currently, the whole process is automated,
13:47from drone piloting to data capture.
13:50We usually define a search area
13:53to fly over it following a pattern
13:56similar to that of a lawn mower.
13:59Then we send the plane up there
14:02and it starts combing the area in zigzag,
14:05taking pictures all the time.
14:08Photos can reveal invisible clues
14:11for search and rescue teams.
14:14In the Houston, Texas, navigable channel,
14:17Gene's system located a missing person.
14:20The individual has been missing for two days.
14:23They called us to help them with the search.
14:26What we do is look for things that do not fit in the photo.
14:29And we managed to locate that poor man
14:32who had died under the water.
14:35If we zoom in on the image,
14:38it's a white shirt.
14:41There it is.
14:44It was right under the surface of the water.
14:47Since 2007, this activity has also been included
14:50in the FAA's prohibition
14:53that has prevented the flight of Robinson's drones.
14:56Three, two, one.
15:05Sometimes it's heartbreaking
15:08to have to tell a family
15:11that we have forbidden it.
15:14It can be a very tragic and terrible experience
15:17to have to tell them that we have developed this technology
15:20but that we cannot use it
15:23because an agency has forbidden it.
15:26The laws go way behind the technology,
15:29as they usually are.
15:32Matt Wade has also accused
15:35of the impact of the FAA's prohibition.
15:38For a while, we kept flying abroad
15:41because we thought that since there was no commercial interest
15:44in what we were doing,
15:47and being an educational institution,
15:50we could fly as simple fans.
15:53But the FAA sent us a letter in July saying nothing of that.
15:56I can give a student a drone,
15:59you can go to a park and fly it there,
16:02and there's no problem.
16:05But if I say it's an evaluable test,
16:08it's not an evaluable test.
16:11It's an evaluable test.
16:14A student of mine did a piece in India,
16:17where he was flying on an old shipyard
16:20where they still practice a type of fishing boats
16:23from the 7th or 8th century.
16:26And he was flying your sunglasses
16:29and the camera is just absolutely smooth as can be.
16:32Then the same student was hired
16:35by a newspaper in Kenya
16:38and he said that drones are allowed.
16:41He's working with the Star of Nairobi
16:44and he's doing aerial reports
16:47about the conservation of endangered species in Kenya.
16:50And that makes me super jealous
16:53because they can fly freely and I can't.
16:56There are others who defy the FAA's prohibition
16:59of the commercial use of drones.
17:02A group of pilots called Team Black Sheep
17:04flew a drone at the University of Virginia.
17:10As amateur pilots,
17:13they were not subject to the prohibition of commercial flights.
17:16But when the team leader filmed the Faculty of Medicine
17:19at the University of Virginia and sold them the images,
17:22he crossed the line of commercial use.
17:25The FAA imposed a fine of $10,000
17:28but sued them in court and won.
17:31They resorted to the failure
17:34to comply with the law.
17:37At least it's a sign that we're going to advance
17:40after seven years of stagnation.
17:43Can you imagine that 20 years ago
17:46at the dawn of the commercial Internet
17:49the government would have said to American companies
17:52don't develop this, it can't be used for commercial purposes?
17:55Wait another decade and we'll tell you how to use it.
17:58The bureaucratic delay is harming the national interest
18:01to promote this new industry.
18:04But not everyone is excited about the idea
18:07of having machines lying on top of their heads.
18:10In fact, there are those who are supportive of drone hunting.
18:13They're Germans and I have a shotgun.
18:18According to drones, they are becoming
18:21cheaper and easier to handle,
18:24more people who have never flown anything dare to try.
18:27But it's not as easy as it seems.
18:30To fly a robot you need practice
18:32and you make mistakes from time to time.
18:35We see videos of drones flying over streets
18:38with traffic or between fireworks.
18:41YouTube is full of examples of dangerous actions with drones
18:44and accidents can be very serious.
18:49Yes, there are accidents,
18:52especially when you're learning to fly.
18:55I've seen many and I've also suffered them.
18:58The most common are due to the inexperience of the pilot.
19:00It's not cheap enough to know what they're doing.
19:03But if you're flying a drone over people's heads
19:06and there's a problem,
19:09it could fall on someone and hurt them
19:12and even kill them.
19:15It's not just the people who are on the ground
19:18that can be in danger.
19:21This drone created a great stir in Vancouver
19:24when it filmed a plane of passengers landing at its airport.
19:27It's a little worrying that someone can fly
19:30a drone over people's heads.
19:33They're fun, but they can also do dangerous things to them.
19:36I've seen videos on YouTube
19:39where they've gone up to 1,000 metres,
19:42which is an altitude where there are already planes.
19:45There are rules for the personal use of drones.
19:48In Canada and the United States,
19:51you can't fly over populated areas,
19:54you can't lose sight or get more than 90 metres away from the pilot.
19:57But having rules doesn't guarantee they're followed.
20:00You have to improve them and fly safely.
20:03But if you go into a modelling shop
20:06and buy a quadcopter and put a small camera on it,
20:09you can fly.
20:12And maybe you don't know what Transport Canada is
20:15or you don't know there are inspectors.
20:18A friend told me, I've bought one of those things,
20:21I'm going to fly it with my son.
20:24But he's in the airspace.
20:27Many drones can be piloted
20:30and it's almost impossible
20:33to keep up with the rules.
20:36You can't control them completely.
20:39I see drones flying over populated areas
20:42and it's not strange because you can buy one of these
20:45for about $250.
20:48Technically, you can do that
20:51because you're flying over a populated area.
20:54So it's quite difficult to follow a drone
20:57and know who's piloting it.
21:01Sami Khankar is an expert in zombie drones.
21:04He started his career at a very young age
21:07looking for weak spots in programmes
21:10and creating a virus called Sami.
21:13When I was younger, in my eight years,
21:16I wrote a book about MySpace
21:19that ended up having more than a million friends in one day
21:22until they put the website offline and deleted it.
21:25After three years in conditional freedom,
21:27Sami is a security consultant
21:30specialising in looking for vulnerabilities in computer systems.
21:33His latest project is to kidnap drones
21:36through a programme called Skyjack.
21:39Yes, Skyjack.
21:42I programmed it the day after Amazon announced
21:45that they were going to use aerial drones.
21:48Sami wanted to find out if you could use a drone
21:51to kidnap another one in the air.
21:54While it's flying around,
21:57what it's actually doing
22:00is disconnecting the pilot of another drone,
22:03connecting it in its place and controlling it.
22:06So any other drones within the reach of my drone, Skyjack,
22:09become zombie drones controlled by me.
22:12And it was quite a fun test of a concept,
22:15a demonstration of how the most advanced drone technology works
22:19and how easy it is to hack it right now.
22:23Now, little drones can hack other drones
22:25and control them.
22:28And then if they commit criminal acts, who has committed them?
22:31Someone can take control of your drone
22:34and crash it against the window of your neighbour to have fun.
22:37In principle, you are the one who has done it and they can sue you.
22:40This will lead to very complex issues.
22:43One of the most complex issues is privacy.
22:46Almost all drones have a camera.
22:49I really love drone technology.
22:52I think it can be used for good things.
22:55I think it's the incidental use of drones.
22:58If I fly a drone through my neighbourhood,
23:01I'm going to see through windows, even if I don't intend to.
23:04It's the incidental use.
23:07If a drone invades our privacy,
23:10is it committing an illegal act? Not necessarily.
23:13If someone were to fly a drone over your property
23:16while it's sunbathing,
23:19the question is,
23:22is it flying over your property?
23:25If a drone is not directly above your property,
23:28there's not much it can do.
23:31Privacy protection laws require
23:34that you do something other than fly a drone and look with the camera.
23:37You have to deliberately try to take sexual images
23:40or there must be an intention of harassment.
23:43There must be an added element.
23:46Okay, you can't do much
23:49if a stranger accidentally films us with a drone.
23:52But what if it's a private detective and he does it on purpose?
23:55If a private detective
23:58puts a camera in front of our house,
24:01in a place where he can legally be,
24:04then he can't be sued for any violation of privacy,
24:07as far as I know.
24:10I noticed that there's a laboratory of journalism with drones,
24:13and I think it's a very interesting project.
24:16But it's like everything else, I think,
24:19what journalists are going to want to use this technology?
24:22Are they going to be the paparazzi?
24:25I don't know.
24:28That they can watch us from the sky or at will
24:31is causing reactions against drones.
24:34I've been working on surveillance and privacy issues
24:37for the last two and a half years,
24:40and there's a lot of concern about drones,
24:43a technology that's not even really implemented.
24:46A little microcosm of the reaction
24:49that drones are causing here in Seattle
24:52is a public protest that was so vehement
24:55that they banned the drone program.
24:58In the United States, many cities,
25:01eight states and all national parks
25:04have banned the use of drones.
25:07Sometimes the reactions can be contradictory.
25:10Colorado has passed a law that prohibits
25:13the use of drones for hunting,
25:16while Illinois has passed laws to prevent
25:19animal rights activists from using drones to harass hunters.
25:22There are all kinds of reactions,
25:25from people who want to shoot deer with it
25:28to people who want to shoot someone in their backyard.
25:31There's even some kind of legitimacy in Colorado
25:34where they want to issue licenses
25:37to shoot an X number of drones if you see them,
25:40which I think is clearly not okay.
25:43Deer Trail is a small town in Colorado
25:46where drones have become a hot topic.
25:49I view drones as animals,
25:52but they're flying animals.
25:55I have sold licenses for hunting drones to Deer Trail.
25:58I have sold licenses for hunting drones
26:01to all the states in the country.
26:04I have also sold three drones hunting licenses
26:07to Canada and one in France.
26:10If a drone enters the airspace of my backyard,
26:13it's invasion of property, pure and simple.
26:16This is a criminal act,
26:19and I have a shotgun.
26:22When I give a talk to a group,
26:25they take it out of sight of private property.
26:28If that flies over my house,
26:31can I take out the shotgun and load it?
26:34I don't know if there's any law in favor or against it,
26:37but randomly shooting bullets into the air
26:40without knowing where they're going to land
26:43is a bad idea.
26:46The bad news for those who hate drones
26:49is that enthusiasts love a good challenge.
26:52Yeah, we heard about that guy
26:55who shot a drone.
26:58It looks like the last shot
27:01made it fall to the ground,
27:04but I don't see any minor damage.
27:07Let's see if it takes off again.
27:10The next will be drone swarms,
27:13much more difficult to shoot down.
27:16They won't have a single target, but a thousand.
27:19Aggression causes escalation of conflict, cause and effect.
27:22You can only shoot something if you can see it.
27:25One of the advantages of military drones
27:28is their ability to operate without being seen, from the sky.
27:31And the ability to finance the military
27:34has taken that concept to a new level.
27:37One of the big areas that the military would like to develop
27:40is the ability to fly and land,
27:43so much less battery is spent.
27:46And there's a model, the Hummingbird by Aero Environment.
27:49As a roboticist, I love it.
27:52It looks like a hummingbird, it has wings and can fly.
27:55Let's see if it can fly again.
27:58The drones that fly and land
28:01could make it almost impossible to know if they are watching us.
28:04But the new technologies that would allow us
28:07to follow them every day without being seen
28:10are already on the horizon.
28:13The ARGUS system, Omnipresent Autonomous Surveillance
28:16in real time, according to its acronym in English,
28:19can follow all our movements within an area of 40 square kilometers,
28:22from a drone that flies at 5,000 meters of altitude.
28:25This image has a very high resolution.
28:28So if we wanted to know what's going on at any point,
28:31for example, next to this building, at this intersection,
28:34we generate an image in motion
28:37that shows us what's going on in the area.
28:40ARGUS is a 1.8-gigapixel mapping system
28:43that interconnects more than 300 small high-resolution cameras
28:46forming a huge lens.
28:49Its software merges captures from all over the world
28:51in a single high-resolution image.
28:54And all the objects that move
28:57are being followed automatically.
29:00We can see individuals crossing the street,
29:03entering parking lots.
29:06In fact, it has enough resolution
29:09to be able to see the type of clothing
29:12people are wearing, the clothes they wear.
29:15Once a subject is identified,
29:18the system can follow their movements all day long.
29:21It can be mounted on a large drone
29:24that can stay in the air for more than 24 hours in a row.
29:27But soon we'll see drones with much greater autonomy.
29:30They can fly in the upper layers of the atmosphere
29:33between one and five years in a row.
29:36But it worries that uninterrupted surveillance
29:39can be incorporated into other tracking technologies
29:42that are already watching us.
29:45Mobile phones are another link in the chain.
29:48One of the characteristics of their operation
29:51has been a question related to smartphones for several years,
29:54especially Apple iPhones, Google Androids,
29:57and Microsoft Windows phones.
30:00I found that all three constantly send information
30:03about the location of the user to their parent companies.
30:06And also that some of those phones,
30:09specifically iPhones and Windows phones,
30:12continued to send that location information by Wi-Fi,
30:15even when the user said,
30:17I want to disconnect the GPS or the location services.
30:20The smartphones were recording where all the people
30:23who used those phones were at all times.
30:26And Apple, Google, and Microsoft were creating large databases
30:29on the location of all the networks
30:32and all the phones in the world.
30:35Surveillance of your phone,
30:38tracking your iPad or whatever device you're wearing,
30:41is so much harder to avoid
30:44than surveillance on the computer.
30:47I became editor of the ProPublica portal
30:50and author of Dragon Nation.
30:53These objects are with us all the time,
30:56and they're not like our computer,
30:59they're always transmitting.
31:02There are already surveillance technologies
31:05that most of us don't even know,
31:08like registration readers,
31:11fixed traffic cameras, police cars,
31:14and even private companies that photograph
31:17one and I said, can I see my car? And they opened a photo. My car parked in front of
31:24my house. There it was. And it struck me a lot. Because I hadn't done anything wrong.
31:31The problem with this data is that there is no law that regulates it. You can do with
31:36them whatever you want, like sell them to North Korea. It's the wild west.
31:42If these organizations link their data surveillance with a system like Argus, it could be
31:47the end of privacy as we know it. So between the registration and mobile tracking
31:52and people's movements, surveillance would go to a completely new level.
31:58And all this data can be stored to access them in the future.
32:03You can go back and say, I want to see what happened in this particular place three days,
32:09two hours and four minutes ago. And it would show us exactly what happened there as if
32:15we were seeing it live.
32:18This is the eye that looks from the sky. The no more of surveillance. It allows the authorities
32:24to press a button and know where each vehicle was and each pedestrian in the area. Where
32:30does your journey begin, where does it end and where does it stop in between?
32:34But does it really matter that they keep an eye on us even more?
32:39My favorite approach. I haven't done anything wrong. I have nothing to hide. Why would I
32:43worry? You have to worry because information is power. We are giving away that information.
32:50And the people who collect it have power over us.
32:53The invasive power of surveillance with drones is causing new debates about privacy.
32:59If we don't want the police to investigate people unless we think they are doing something
33:03wrong, then the police would never move a finger.
33:07Obviously that would be absurd, okay. But something we are starting to see all over
33:11the country are police video cameras set up on the street pointing to the doors of
33:16private homes. Would you like to have one in front of your house?
33:20I wouldn't like it. Most people wouldn't like it. And that's a better analogy
33:24than we're discussing. Persistent surveillance with drones or a simple passing of a drone.
33:31There has never been so much information available so far. When does that start to be
33:36dangerous?
33:37I made a very interesting trip to Berlin and visited the Estasi archives. I wanted to see
33:42how the most repressive secret police we've ever seen operated, that of Eastern Germany
33:47during the communist regime. But they had very limited information. They had to open
33:53people's letters with steam, listen to their calls and follow them from here to there.
33:59Our intelligence apparatus does not have to make those efforts. Even in the most difficult
34:04investigations, the amount of data they can get by pressing a couple of keys would make
34:09Estasi cry with envy.
34:11A lot of people in the government would like to create an ocean of data about us so that
34:15they can navigate later by looking for illegalities. And that's giving too much power to a government.
34:22This is not Eastern Germany. It's a democracy. But how do we make sure we don't end up like
34:28them? Because we have an intelligence apparatus that has very powerful tools. There is a
34:34supervision problem, and there is no adequate supervision. Because when Snowden's revelations
34:39came out, it was a surprise for Congress. It was a surprise for the citizens, right?
34:44The man who wrote the patriotic law said, I never thought my law would be used for this.
34:50When a new technology appears, there is a time lapse between the moment when
34:55people's privacy begins to be invaded and the moment when citizens are aware of it.
35:02And now we are in that moment.
35:04Next, in the era of the drone, we look forward to the future of flying robots.
35:14A row of campaign stores encroaches on teams of engineering students from several universities.
35:20This is the sixth student competition of non-manned aerial vehicles in Canada.
35:25Thirteen teams participate, and they have to design, build, and make a non-manned aerial vehicle fly
35:32for agriculture, mining, or the oil and gas industry.
35:36The work is very demanding. A few of us have slept a couple of hours,
35:40four others, and many of us have not slept at all.
35:43A great opportunity to experience on the ground a technology with great potential.
35:49It's a real experience, something we miss in class. You go to a conference,
35:54you do work, but you don't have field experience.
35:58The people I know who are dedicated to this are from my faculty or are in this program.
36:02They are aware of the dizzying pace at which this technology advances.
36:07You can't just bring the same device and pretend to win.
36:10You have to always go ahead of others and improve your system year after year.
36:15It's kind of funny when you meet a team from Turkey that is competing with the same kind of team as us
36:21but they have the same ideas. It's fascinating.
36:25The great variety of systems that are being used to carry out a certain type of work,
36:30the analysis and mapping of the terrain,
36:32shows the enormous range of possibilities that this field presents.
36:42Programs similar to this one around the world are the reason why drone technology is advancing so rapidly.
36:49Prices are getting lower and lower, and new benefits are coming more and more quickly.
36:54So, what's next?
36:56To start, drones to test for dizziness.
36:59To take off, you just have to press the power button,
37:03check the previous checks,
37:06and press the take off button.
37:09When we went to start visiting our potential clients, they said,
37:12you know, we're a threat if we break things.
37:15That's what the local police told us.
37:18So we needed a technology designed for non-pilots.
37:22At that point, we drag the indicator on the bar
37:24to take the vehicle to an operating altitude.
37:27When the drone is at the indicated altitude,
37:30you can tell it to follow a predetermined route
37:33to carry out a systematic search,
37:35or you can pilot it by clicking with the pencil.
37:38And switching to manual mode,
37:40I can simply tell it to aim at the camera,
37:43and it will spin and automatically target that point of the terrain.
37:46And as I touch the map, the vehicle will go to the point I've pointed at.
37:51Again, I don't even have to have the vehicle in sight.
37:54It could be many kilometers away, and it would do it all automatically.
37:58At the end of the mission, I can simply press the return button,
38:02and the vehicle will stop doing what it's doing,
38:05and it will immediately fly to the place where it took off.
38:08The vehicle begins to beep to tell us
38:11that we're looking up because it's going down.
38:16And as it touches down, the propellers will stop and it will stop.
38:20Everything automatically.
38:22The automation of all flight functions
38:25reduces the pilot's errors.
38:27But no matter how easy it is to pilot, they can break.
38:30If a rotor is lost at a certain altitude,
38:33it's bad news for the drone and for anyone who's under it.
38:40In Switzerland, a team of researchers
38:43is working to make drones safer.
38:46The Institute for Systems and Dynamics Control
38:49at ETH Labs in Zurich.
38:51They're installing extra propellers in the vehicle.
38:54There are six, eight-propeller vehicles,
38:57but it's no longer necessary to do that.
39:00Instead of crashing when a propeller fails,
39:03ETH Labs has created an algorithm
39:06that allows you to control the drone by making it fly at the same time it spins,
39:10which allows the operator to keep the drone in the air.
39:14That would give the pilot time to land slowly
39:17and to be able to recover the vehicle.
39:21Robots have been used in assembly lines for decades.
39:25Now drones are coming in for construction.
39:29We built a six-meter-tall structure
39:32made up of 1,500 foam modules.
39:35The vehicles are autonomous.
39:37Four-vehicle teams took turns picking up the bricks
39:40and building the structure with them.
39:42It really was a demonstration of how flying machines
39:45can revolutionize the way we build structures.
39:49This time, it was just foam bricks,
39:52but they've shown what they can do.
39:55At ETH Labs, they're looking for tasks for drones
39:58that haven't happened to anyone.
40:00This drone builder is building a rope bridge
40:03for an emergency evacuation.
40:05Using mathematics and complex algorithms,
40:08they're getting things that most of us
40:11couldn't even imagine.
40:17Sometimes, even they're surprised
40:20by what drones can do.
40:22The three vehicles working together
40:25to throw a ball in the air
40:28is a great demonstration of what these vehicles can do collectively.
40:31It's clear that a single vehicle couldn't do this.
40:34They need to coordinate their actions
40:37to be able to throw a ball in the air.
40:41That was very violent, but it never fails.
40:47So we dream these things up
40:49and then we try to do them.
40:55We wanted to come up with the ability
40:58to adapt and learn,
41:00and we thought of a task
41:02where it was necessary
41:04for the vehicle to have a very precise orientation.
41:07We thought, what if we put a camera
41:10that describes eights at high speed,
41:13but always having the camera directed to the same point?
41:16The goal is to make the drone describe eights
41:19around the two subjects,
41:21keeping the camera focused on their heads.
41:24The camera shows that the drone has many problems at first,
41:27but it learns fast.
41:29So at the beginning, it's pretty bad.
41:32It has to learn and adapt.
41:34The drone keeps modifying its flight path
41:37to improve the result.
41:39As it flies and learns,
41:41it compensates for the differences
41:43between what it thought was reality and what it really is.
41:46It's the same thing we humans do all the time
41:49when we play sports like basketball.
41:52We grab the ball, we aim and we throw.
41:55If it doesn't go in, we modify our actions
41:58based on what we've observed.
42:00That's learning.
42:02Once you've figured out how to break down the problem
42:06and how to fix it, it's not magic.
42:08But when you put it all together, it does look like magic.
42:15Ten years from now?
42:18I don't know.
42:21The University of Pennsylvania's robotics laboratory
42:24is also exploring new possibilities.
42:27One of the most fascinating applications of drones
42:30is the swarm, a large number of drones
42:33using a collective mind like a hive.
42:36When you talk about swarms,
42:38naturally the first thing that comes to mind
42:40is the idea of something collective.
42:42So yes, it's about collective intelligence.
42:45The laboratory also tests how precise drones can be.
42:48So we're interested in this type of aggressive,
42:51high-speed manoeuvres because, in a sense,
42:54they go beyond the limits of what our systems can achieve.
42:57They also are demonstrating capabilities
43:00that allow them to move and operate much faster than humans.
43:03Drones can now navigate outdoors using GPS.
43:06And indoors, new 3D mapping technologies
43:09will solve that problem.
43:12The only way to know where you are
43:15is by taking reference to the elements you observe.
43:18So in some sense, our robots have to estimate
43:21where they are in reference to their environment
43:24about 100 times per second, just to survive.
43:27So I'm looking forward to the day
43:30that someone will make an emergency phone call
43:33and the moment they hang up,
43:36a swarm of robots will run through the building
43:39at a speed of four or five metres per second
43:42collecting information.
43:48And then getting out of the building,
43:51by the time they come back, all of that information
43:55will be sent to the human operator,
43:58who is outside.
44:01That's the type of application we're working on.
44:04Drone swarm technology can save many lives,
44:07but, as always, it can be used for good or bad.
44:11It would be so easy to get a drone
44:14that can carry 60 kilos and just fill it with explosives.
44:17You could just fly it anywhere you want
44:20and detonate it whenever you want.
44:23You can stop one, but what if there were 100 or just 20?
44:26How do you kill them all?
44:29It's surprising, but we'll see.
44:33Now, in the era of the drone,
44:36is it time to put this genius back in the lamp?
44:39Drones are one of the first things people are saying.
44:42No, this is too much.
44:48If we're really at the door of the era of the drone,
44:51should we be worried?
44:54If I were to say that I could really consider
44:57three things about drones that I'm constantly worried about,
45:00the first would be their excessive use
45:03by the police.
45:06The second is that there will be individuals
45:09who will misuse drones in some way.
45:12But I have to say that, just as much,
45:15I'm worried that this transformative technology
45:19will be rejected.
45:22That's the history of technology in the United States and around the world.
45:25I could tell you stories about how public opinion reacted
45:28in 1890 when the Kodak Brognie came out.
45:31They put guards on the beaches to prevent people
45:34from taking cameras to the beach
45:37because they were afraid that they could take pictures
45:40in their bathing suits.
45:43And it was described in Dantesque terms
45:46as a kind of moment.
45:49And a few years later, no one understood
45:52what was going on.
45:55Drones show us a new image
45:58of how surveillance is used in our society.
46:01Drones have been the drop that has filled the cup
46:04in the matter of privacy.
46:07More state laws have been passed on drones
46:10than on any other aspect of the defense of privacy
46:13that people are really voting in terms of surveillance.
46:16You've gone too far with surveillance.
46:19You don't have to watch me from the sky.
46:22I like the example of Iowa City,
46:25which not only has banned drones,
46:28but has included registration readers,
46:31traffic cameras, so forth.
46:34We have to thoroughly analyze
46:37how technology is being used in cities.
46:41We have to make sure that drones bring us pizza at home
46:44or help us find lost children
46:47and do all the good things that they can do
46:50without violating our privacy.
46:53This technology could totally change our world
46:56and our lives.
46:59It could be a terrifying world.
47:02On the other hand, it could also be an utopia.
47:05Perhaps with proper regulation
47:08and proper surveillance.
47:38In ten years,
47:41if you ask any reporter
47:44in any press room,
47:47are you going to use a drone
47:50to cover up that fire?
47:53The answer is no.
47:56The answer is no.
47:59The answer is no.
48:02The answer is no.
48:05you're going to use a drone to cover that fire,
48:08it's going to look at you like you're crazy.
48:10Of course it will, of course it will.
48:13I think that just within a few years,
48:15the use of drones will be quite routine.
48:19You'll have the parents agree
48:21on who's going to film the kids' game with their drone.
48:24I mean, I think those things are going to be
48:26implanted in our daily lives before we even know it.
48:32We adapt to technology.
48:34We acquire a new technology and we apply it to our values,
48:37our morals and our ethics.
48:39We incorporate it into our society and we move forward.
48:42And this is no different.
48:43This is going to happen one day.
48:45And it's going to be interesting to see how it happens.
49:04Microsoft Mechanics
49:09www.microsoft.com