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Police iDrone UAVs With Tasers
According to an article published in Wired's UK site, it appears that UAV's (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) in Europe will soon be carrying non-lethal weapons.
Taser stun guns are now so light (about 150 grams) that they could be mounted on the smaller drones. Antoine di Zazzo, head of SMP Technologies, which distributes tasers in France, says the company is fitting one to a small quad-rotor iDrone (another quad-rotor toy helicopter), which some have called a "flying saucer".
Philip K. Dick presented sf fans with a description of a surveillance drone attacking civilians. Here's how devices like these were portrayed on the cover of the original Ace Double:
(Robotic tracking devices from Vulcan's Hammer)
Coming across the sill, through the window and into the room, was something made of gleaming metal. It lifted and flew through the air. As it swooped it made a shrill sound. It changed direction and dropped at Fields...The metal thing dived at Fields.
After they destroy the device (using a heat ray), it is described as "a charred but still intact metal cylinder with an elaborate system of antennas and receptors and propulsion jets."
Larry Niven got even closer with his copsyes from his 1972 story Cloak of Anarchy:
Someone at police headquarters had expected that. Twice the usual number of copseyes floated overhead, waiting. Gold dots against blue, basketball-sized, twelve feet up. Each a television eye and a sonic stunner, each a hookup to police headquarters, they were there to enforce the law of the Park.
(Read more about Niven's copseyes)
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 2/11/2010)
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