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Aeryon Scout UAV Gets Upgrades
The Aeryon Scout is a small, two pound unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) designed to fit easily into a backpack. With the simple touch-screen interface, it is easy to operate with just a few minutes of training.
(Aeryon Scout unmanned aerial vehicle)
One of the new features of the Aeryon Scout is the ability to fly in an autonomous way. Once the user has used the point-and-click interface to select coordinates on the map-based navigation system, the Scout will fly itself as directed.
The Scout is now equipped with an aerial photography platform with live digital video. The daytime imaging payload is (the company claims) the lightest completely digital, high-resolution, gimbaled camera available - weighing just 112 grams. It provides 5 megapixel still images and real-time MPEG-4 compressed video at up to 640 x 480 resolution.
The Aeryon Scout is a pretty close match for one of the stick-tights, surveillance devices described by Jack Vance in his 1964 novel The Star King. Vance called it a servo-optical:
Gersen continued, "There is a stick-tight watching us, although I have not yet located it. Its microphone probably registers our conversation..."The servo-optical -- a spy cell supported by rotary wings, remotely guided by an operator."
Philip K. Dick also envisioned this kind of system. Take a look at a cover picture of a robot tracking device from his 1960 novel Vulcan's Hammer.
For retro charm, take a look at the previous generation described in an earlier article Aeryon Scout UAV Like In Crichton's Runaway; Aeryon has come a long way. Also, visit the Aeryon Scout product page for full details.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 8/4/2009)
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