Comment on China has introduced a drone that flies like a bird. The new invention could turn the drone industry upside down

• Sanctus@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  These would have fantastical scouting capabilities. Pretty alright at being undercover as long as the target isnt looking for them. You could easily storm a few places unexpectedly with a little bit of explosives and these. This is that shit the Wizard and the evil chick were drooling over in Wicked.

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  • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    If your putting explosives on these things I don’t think it matters. You wouldn’t hear the whirl of the rotors until after it got within striking range.

    youtube.com/shorts/rmRnw-PzV0U

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    • Sanctus@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      I would assume the visuals are key here. You can’t normally hear birds flapping anyway. They just look like birds.

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  • CosmoNova@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    It’s the perfect weapon to spy on other countries for them because any bird would stick out like a sour thumb in China so it can’t be used against them. Meanwhile in other countries it wouldn’t even be looked at.

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    • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Is this a Mao Sparrow reference or did all their air pollution kill the birds?

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      • CosmoNova@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        Their bird population never recovered because even migratory birds have their fixed routes and when you exterminate thousands upon thousands of swarms that have settled there for countless generations it breaks the cycle. I guess environmental pollution also doesn’t help. It‘s not like bird populations are doing great anywhere these days but with that history it‘s extra hard for them.

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• adespoton@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  The one thing it has going for it is covert surveillance.

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  • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Bird circles 80 times with 15 second gaps of the camera pointed in the wrong direction is all I can imagine. You’d have to swoop the bird directly at the target you wanted to capture the image of unless you are controlling the bird and using a floating camera that you are pointing at the target and rotating separately. Which means the odds of you crashing are going up drastically.

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    • adespoton@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Imagine a camera on the bottom of the body instead of where the eyes would be. Now have it circle like an eagle, flapping as needed. Telephoto lens.

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      • taladar@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        Actually the whole point of birds not having their eyes on the body is that they can essentially stabilize their head with their neck so it is not affected by the flapping motion so much.

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    • taulover@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Just use a 360 degree camera with stabilization

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• rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  This might be much more efficient

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  • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Plane vs helicopter I imagine. Plane should have a longer range, helicopter is better to get footage.

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