flying drone journalism

[jefferiestubes8]

We know about UAV drones and the military uses them as recently as in Libya

The Libyans use both day and night-time cameras. The day camera allows them to gather detailed images and video, while the night-time camera is a thermal imager, gathering heat images of equipment and people on the ground. The images and video below are of a Libyan artillery position taken at night with the thermal camera. Each image is embedded with date and time stamps and highly accurate latitude and longitude information for every target.

the concept of 'drone journalism' is finally taking off.

the media is beginning to go micro, exploiting rapid advances in technology by deploying small toy-like UAVs to get the story.

He flew the drone low over riot police lines to record a violent demonstration in Warsaw. The pictures were extraordinarily different from run-of-the-mill protest coverage.

Posted online, the images went viral. More significantly, this birds-eye view clip found its way onto the bulletins and web pages of mainstream media.

2 minute video
Who's Drone? Our Drone!!! Protesters at Warsaw, Poland Launch UAV-CAM 1/2
which looks more like a Hollywood film version of riot police running.
and part 2 which looks like a news helicoptor is flying 50 feet off the ground over the street.
It was also titled 'RC Chopper films riots in Poland'.

This recent emergence of drone journalism has attracted the attention of University of Nebraska Journalism academic Matt Waite. In November he founded the Drone Journalism Lab, a research project to determine the viability of remote airborne media.

Then a US activist near Dallas launched his UAV to take these pictures of an environmental violation, "a river of blood" flowing from a local meat packing plant.

"Here in the US the law doesn't allow it - plain and simple," he said.

"The rules right now in the US are basically this: nothing over 400 feet, nothing out of sight, nothing near people and no commercial purposes.

That may be about to change. The aerospace industry, the mining and agricultural sectors and other potential users have lobbied hard to overturn a ban on most civilian UAVs in US airspace.

Earlier this month the US Congress relented, passing a bill ordering the Federal Aviation Administration to open the nation's airways to commercial drones by 2015.

Drone journalism may be able to hitch a ride in the corporate slipstream.

"Commercial drones are going to be big business soon," Professor Waite said. "I can see all kinds of uses for drones in farming. Law enforcement is one of the biggest proponents of this technology, and oil and gas pipeline owners can use them to monitor their assets.

Flying paparazzi?

Imagine a camera drone slowly climbing to a 30th-floor hotel window. Now visualise the face of the targeted celebrity, caught in an indiscrete moment: the million-dollar money shot.

For the paparazzi, fines or confiscation of a drone may be a very small price to pay.

The possibilities seem endless, as do the legal and ethical issues.

Yes of course they will use them sooner than later.

http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2012/s3439176.htm

We saw the use of these in Back to the Future Part II (1989) their vision of 2015 when Marty Jr. was arrested by USA Today to snap a photo but we all know 30fps video is more important and will be shot instead. While it may be 5 years early to daily life it did predict drone journalism that we'll see by 2015-2020.
This guys takes his around Cancun:
Beautiful HD FPV - Cancun
and around and inside a warehouse.
Tricopter HD FPV - The Warehouse

If some hobbyist guy can do it you bet that these will be purchased by 3rd party contractors and add a
HD HERO2:Outdoor Edition camera
HD resolution 1080p: 1920×1080, 30FPS for $300.
It is happening a lot sooner than you think.
If you think it has to be downloaded think again if a camera can output HDMI video then it can be transmitted live via WiFi and broadcast live to the Internet for $1500.

Oh no WiFi. that's okay it can work over cellphone signals too. for $2500.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

NHK demonstrate Balloon Camera Shoots Stable Aerial Footage

a decidedly low-tech way of getting a camera in the air.

“The first advantage of this system is that it reduces costs, and the second is that it can be set up anywhere. So, a big feature of this system is that it keeps costs down and makes installation easy, by eliminating the need to find a large space or get permission.”

“From now on, we think we could bring viewers entirely new shots, in daytime news and sports programs, for example.”

NHK demonstrate Balloon Camera Shoots Stable Aerial Footage

The camera attached to this balloon will remain stable thanks to a four axis camera gimbal, which is also attached to a balloon, rising up to a maximum height of 300 meters [985 feet]. The motion of the camera and gimbal can be manipulated using a toy helicopter’s remote control.

source

a tethered, balloon-mounted, four-axis gyro-stabilized camera rig that weighs in at about 2 kg (4.4 lb), can soar up to 300 m (984 ft) and takes its commands from the re-purposed remote control for a toy helicopter.

source

the NHK rig is limited to operating at wind speeds of 7 m/sec (about 15 mph) or less

The height actually used for a bird's-eye view is about 30-50m (98-164 ft) because that's the most practical altitude, .

This is fairly cheap and quiet and while tethered it can be a stable view if launched from a rooftop upwind and retrieved again.

 

[Samurai8472]

Hovering camera's would be cool. It would be able to go where no camera can go

[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQIMGV5vtd4[/YT]

 

[Beagleman]

^^^
That is awesome (...and kinda scary)!