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Protesters Claim Robotic Dragonfly Spy on Them?

 
Pa1N ReDeFiNeD
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User ID: 291947
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10/10/2007 02:49 AM
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Protesters Claim Robotic Dragonfly Spy on Them?
Dragonfly or Insect Spy? Scientists at Work on Robobugs.

[link to www.washingtonpost.com]

check out the original story, cool pics and vids of the robots.



By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 9, 2007; Page A03

Vanessa Alarcon saw them while working at an antiwar rally in Lafayette Square last month.

"I heard someone say, 'Oh my god, look at those,' " the college senior from New York recalled. "I look up and I'm like, 'What the hell is that?' They looked kind of like dragonflies or little helicopters. But I mean, those are not insects."


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DragonSpies
Robotic fliers have been used by the military since World War II, but in the past decade their numbers and level of sophistication have increased enormously.

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Out in the crowd, Bernard Crane saw them, too.

"I'd never seen anything like it in my life," the Washington lawyer said. "They were large for dragonflies. I thought, 'Is that mechanical, or is that alive?' "

That is just one of the questions hovering over a handful of similar sightings at political events in Washington and New York. Some suspect the insectlike drones are high-tech surveillance tools, perhaps deployed by the Department of Homeland Security.

Others think they are, well, dragonflies -- an ancient order of insects that even biologists concede look about as robotic as a living creature can look.

No agency admits to having deployed insect-size spy drones. But a number of U.S. government and private entities acknowledge they are trying. Some federally funded teams are even growing live insects with computer chips in them, with the goal of mounting flowers on their bodies and controlling their flight muscles remotely.

The robobugs could follow suspects, guide missiles to targets or navigate the crannies of collapsed buildings to find survivors.

The technical challenges of creating robotic insects are daunting, and most experts doubt that fully working models exist yet.

"If you find something, let me know," said Gary Anderson of the Defense Department's Rapid Reaction Technology Office.

But the CIA secretly developed a simple dragonfly snooper as long ago as the 1970s. And given recent advances, even skeptics say there is always a chance that some agency has quietly managed to make something operational.

"America can be pretty sneaky," said Tom Ehrhard, a retired Air Force colonel and expert in unmanned aerial vehicles who is now at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a nonprofit Washington-based research institute.

hiding
i feel so horrified, i've let my innocence die, you want to know why i cant be pacified, you made me bury something, i wont be sleeping tonight it seems so clear now what i must do, you're no immortal i wont let them deify you, they view you as the new messiah, they deify you."

from Disturbed "Deify", CD "10,000 Fists"
FalseGod

User ID: 307046
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10/10/2007 03:00 AM
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Re: Protesters Claim Robotic Dragonfly Spy on Them?


Last Edited by FalseGod on 01/07/2013 12:10 AM
The dreams in which i'm dying are the best i've ever had - Mad World
Anonymous Coward
User ID: 310421
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10/10/2007 08:41 AM
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Re: Protesters Claim Robotic Dragonfly Spy on Them?
In the New Improved Amerika, the people are the enemy.
Anonymous Coward
User ID: 310424
United Kingdom
10/10/2007 08:51 AM
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Re: Protesters Claim Robotic Dragonfly Spy on Them?
wow....




how sneaky !
Anonymous Coward
User ID: 301225
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10/10/2007 08:52 AM
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Re: Protesters Claim Robotic Dragonfly Spy on Them?
This is nothing new old tech just seen by common folks, what you should be worried about is the robotic semen that DOD is working on.
Grafted Promise
User ID: 310450
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10/10/2007 10:17 AM
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Re: Protesters Claim Robotic Dragonfly Spy on Them?
Saw this too and was going to post it.

We see dragon flies but they never fly in formation! And never have things hanging out their back ends.

Wonder if the Revelation critters at Seal 7, trumpet 5 are of this sort?
Anonymous Coward
User ID: 17410
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10/10/2007 10:22 AM
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Re: Protesters Claim Robotic Dragonfly Spy on Them?
Yes I've seen them around my house. I told the GLPers but they just laughed at me.
Sireen
User ID: 301765
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10/10/2007 10:34 AM
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Re: Protesters Claim Robotic Dragonfly Spy on Them?
I had read last week that they have cameras that look like those propeller leaves that spin to the ground. It has a revolving camera and is controlled remotely. They are using these to spy on the "enemy" now.
Anonymous Coward
User ID: 310421
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10/10/2007 10:40 AM
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Re: Protesters Claim Robotic Dragonfly Spy on Them?
On September 10, 2001, Rummy told the media that the Pentagon had "lost" $2,300,000,000,000 (trillion).

Where do you think the money went?

Defense Department Cannot Account For 25% Of Funds — $2.3 Trillion
[link to www.cbsnews.com]
Robo Fly
User ID: 310257
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10/10/2007 12:29 PM
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Re: Protesters Claim Robotic Dragonfly Spy on Them?
[link to www.flytechonline.com]
Anonymous Coward
User ID: 310492
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10/10/2007 12:32 PM
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Re: Protesters Claim Robotic Dragonfly Spy on Them?
Youtube video or they don't exist.
Anonymous Coward
User ID: 310439
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10/10/2007 12:46 PM
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Re: Protesters Claim Robotic Dragonfly Spy on Them?
WTF????

I SAW ONE OF THEM IN MY BATHROOM LAST NIGHT!!!! wtf
Anonymous Coward
User ID: 301225
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10/10/2007 01:17 PM
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Re: Protesters Claim Robotic Dragonfly Spy on Them?
WTF????

I SAW ONE OF THEM IN MY BATHROOM LAST NIGHT!!!! wtf
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 310439

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZz
Anonymous Coward
User ID: 99592
United States
10/10/2007 01:19 PM
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Re: Protesters Claim Robotic Dragonfly Spy on Them?
And you all scoffed at the ceiling fan ufo. Hail, my leige!
fërú.

User ID: 310524
Mexico
10/10/2007 01:20 PM
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Re: Protesters Claim Robotic Dragonfly Spy on Them?
I see a bird red head in Phoenix AZ. 2005 just like a bird but with robotic eyes, I tough it was a ET tech... not human but it looks we have it now.
  Enki was the real engineer of the human race. He was the Sumerian god of science, engineering, magic, strategy, music, and lovemaking
Grafted Promise
User ID: 310549
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10/10/2007 02:57 PM
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Re: Protesters Claim Robotic Dragonfly Spy on Them?
Anyone seeing them ... catch them! net them! put a box over them! Hold them for ransom!
LEGION, FOR THERE ARE MANY
User ID: 186213
United States
10/10/2007 04:02 PM
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Re: Protesters Claim Robotic Dragonfly Spy on Them?
Saw this too and was going to post it.

We see dragon flies but they never fly in formation! And never have things hanging out their back ends.

Wonder if the Revelation critters at Seal 7, trumpet 5 are of this sort?
 Quoting: Grafted Promise 310450

About a month and a half ago. I was outside in my yard working, when I noticed a strange looking dragonfly, like nothing I ever seen before.

After watching it circle around, I kept noticing that there was something strange about this dragonfly.

After watching it for about 5 minutes or so, I decided to get one of my digital cameras and see if I could get a shot of this thing.

I shot about five shots of this dragonfly and upon further review, I noticed a black object about one-half length the size of the dragon fly ON IT`S BACK.

It also looked like the dragonfly had saddles on it`s side as it flew over my head.

I didn`t mention much to my associates, at the time, because I did not know what I was dealing with.

I did however reach a tenative answer, based on the case facts available, that what I was observing was a mutant dragonfly or one that was diseased.

But, I wondered..."What If"..........then thought nothing more of it.

However, about two weeks ago and about 90 miles or so from my home, during a field study, I noticed this same type of dragonfly with the same peculiar object on its back, and with saddles.

To the chase, my final answer would be, that what this dragonfly, believed to be a female, was carrying on it`s back was a dead male dragonfly that apparently died during copulation with the female and was rotting on the females back.

If not that, then.........."What if"?..............LEGION
von Doom
User ID: 165311
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10/10/2007 04:19 PM
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Re: Protesters Claim Robotic Dragonfly Spy on Them?
Did you know that the dragon fly is the natural enemy of the mosquito?

Interesting choice of insect for sure.
Anonymous Coward
User ID: 310516
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10/10/2007 04:24 PM
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Re: Protesters Claim Robotic Dragonfly Spy on Them?
cockroaches.

[link to www.newscientist.com]
Pa1N ReDeFiNeD  (OP)

User ID: 291947
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10/11/2007 12:36 AM
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Re: Protesters Claim Robotic Dragonfly Spy on Them?
bump
i feel so horrified, i've let my innocence die, you want to know why i cant be pacified, you made me bury something, i wont be sleeping tonight it seems so clear now what i must do, you're no immortal i wont let them deify you, they view you as the new messiah, they deify you."

from Disturbed "Deify", CD "10,000 Fists"
Pa1N ReDeFiNeD  (OP)

User ID: 291947
United States
10/11/2007 02:38 AM
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Re: Protesters Claim Robotic Dragonfly Spy on Them?
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 310516


here is this article.

Robo-roach could betray real cockroaches
16:29 09 May 2006
NewScientist.com news service
Tom Simonite


An Insbot (centre) interacts with real roaches (Image: Jean-Louis Deneubourg)Tools
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A matchbox-sized robot that can infiltrate a pack of cockroaches and influence their collective behaviour has been developed by European scientists.

The tiny robot smells and acts just like a roach, fooling the real insects into accepting it as one of their own. Through its behaviour, the robot can persuade a group of cockroaches to venture out into the light despite their normal preference for the dark, for example.

The researchers behind the robot believe it could be used to catch cockroaches and that bots designed to mimic other animals could one day work on farms controlling flocks of sheep and chickens by similar means.

Cockroaches and other insects such as ants display "collective intelligence". This means that complex group behaviour emerges from simple individual action and interaction. Researchers from France, Belgium and Switzerland set out to create a robot capable of controlling a group of cockroaches by exploiting this emergent behaviour.

Cockroach pheromones
The researchers came up with 'Insbot', a wheeled robot about the size of a small matchbox. It contains several computer processors hooked up to a camera and an array of infrared proximity sensors that allow the bot to identify obstacles and real cockroaches. To the human eye it might not look much like an insect, but cockroach pheromones and carefully programmed behaviour are enough to convince real roaches that it is one of the gang.

"If you don't put the pheromone molecules on them, the cockroaches get scared because they are afraid it is a predator," says roboticist Jean-Louis Deneubourg from the Free University in Brussels.

To get the robots to behave like real insects the team developed a mathematical model of cockroach behaviour by observing real ones. Tweaking this model suggested ways that the robot infiltrator might steer the behaviour of the whole group by exploiting the creatures' tendency to follow one another.

A video created by the researchers shows several Insbots travelling around a maze and interacting with cockroaches.

Deneubourg's team tested the persuasive power of Insbots by putting 4 robots and 12 cockroaches in an enclosure with dark and lit-up areas. They programmed the robot to seek out real insects but also veer towards the lit area.

Scared of the dark
"It's important they prefer the light shelter, but not too much," Deneubourg says. "If they have too strong an attraction for the light they will go straight there and not interact with the real cockroaches."

The researchers are keen to develop other robots that can socialise with animals and influence their behaviour in a similar way. They have already begun studying the group behaviour of sheep and chicken. "Chickens are a good example of a mixture of collective intelligence and leadership," Deneubourg says.

"This work has useful applications for influencing animals," says Eduardo Izquierdo-Torres, who researches evolutionary artificial intelligence at Sussex University in the UK. "But what is perhaps more important is understanding how intelligence can arise from simple components."

A better understanding of the rules that produce collective intelligence in cockroaches and ants could lead to innovative forms of artificial intelligence, says Izquierdo-Torres. "It would be interesting to build our own intelligent societies of animals," he says.



my thought is, if they are studying chickens and sheep to mimic their behavior and infiltrate them with robots, i wonder if they study human behavior for the same reason.




hiding
i feel so horrified, i've let my innocence die, you want to know why i cant be pacified, you made me bury something, i wont be sleeping tonight it seems so clear now what i must do, you're no immortal i wont let them deify you, they view you as the new messiah, they deify you."

from Disturbed "Deify", CD "10,000 Fists"
Anonymous Coward
User ID: 258840
United States
10/11/2007 04:06 AM
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Re: Protesters Claim Robotic Dragonfly Spy on Them?
from OP's article, the key segment:

...
They probably saw dragonflies, said Jerry Louton, an entomologist at the National Museum of Natural History. Washington is home to some large, spectacularly adorned dragonflies that "can knock your socks off," he said.

At the same time, he added, some details do not make sense. Three people at the D.C. event independently described a row of spheres, the size of small berries, attached along the tails of the big dragonflies -- an accoutrement that Louton could not explain. And all reported seeing at least three maneuvering in unison.

"Dragonflies never fly in a pack," he said.
...
-- [link to www.washingtonpost.com]
Anonymous Coward
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04/20/2008 10:55 AM
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Re: Protesters Claim Robotic Dragonfly Spy on Them?
Unknowncountry dot com has an April 12 show featuring Linda Howe with some current dragonfly drone information.

[link to www.unknowncountry.com]

This link might take you straight to the audio file:

[link to www.unknowncountry.com]

Here is a website related to the topic:

[link to www.crystalinks.com]





GLP