Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.
Issue link: https://loumag.epubxp.com/i/421959
LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 12.14 15 t's going to be interesting to see how many video-equipped quadcopters (aka four-rotor drones) fnd spots under Christmas trees this year versus how many pellet guns to shoot them down if they cross your property line or are hovering outside and aimed your way. Should my loved ones be reading this, I'll take the pellet gun. Anyone who's been keeping tabs on the latest consumer technological gizmos during the last 18 months knows that we are on the cusp of a personal UAV/ FPV — that's "unmanned aerial vehicle/frst-person view" to you, Jethro — explosion. Already Louisville and just about every other major city have tech-geek clubs where drone builders bandy about acronyms like military-supply clerks; our club, called LVL1, held a Welcome to the new drone world. By Jack Welch Illustration by Carrie Neumayer JUST SAYIN' I Here's Lookin' at You, Kid (Whether You Like It or Not) brazeiros.com QUACC (quadrotor ultimate aerial combat competition) last December that I watched online. Designed as a search- and-destroy battle between 10-inch-square $40 quad contestants, it wasn't real grabby viewing — just guys standing around fddling with remote-control joysticks while their light plastic copters, emitting the sound of angry bees, careened through warehouse air and crashed into walls, club members and occasionally their "enemy." But these hobbyists are just the caution label on a can of worms. Soon, as bigger, sturdier bells-and-whistles models with high-defnition digital video cameras mounted on their undersides proliferate, and as owners able to remotely see through the camera lens in real time try out more creative ways to use their newfound vision, lawyers will get involved. I mean, think of the paparazzi opportunities! Te government-intrusion opportunities! Te citizen- vigilante opportunities! If you've ever seen a quadcopter — or a hex or an octo — you know the great stealth they bring to the table. Much like a hummingbird (and one model actually has a hummingbird body), they can hover perfectly still for minutes at a time and disappear in an instant, shooting up or out hundreds of feet before you can blink. Right now, although the Federal Aviation Administration has issued vague constraints on commercial and personal drone use, neither Kentucky nor the U.S. government has yet to enact any enforceable laws. Eleven states have, though, and 24 more are looking into it. Part of the hesitation has to do with drones' undeniable commercial and public-safety value: to monitor hazmat train wrecks, help with natural-disaster rescues, fnd missing planes or people, canvas real estate. But with the good comes the highly questionable issue of surveillance — even intercepting cell-phone signals. Tat's where the potential gets scary.