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Autonomous Rotorcraft Sniper System
The Autonomous Rotorcraft Sniper System can hover above the urban battlefield - and it's not just a passive observer.
(Autonomous-Rotorcraft-Sniper-System.jpg)
A .338-caliber rifle mounted to the bottom can be fully controlled by the operator, along with the aircraft itself, a Vigilante unmanned helicopter.
The operator uses a modified Xbox 360 game controller to control the Autonomous Rotorcraft Sniper System.
Larry Niven writes about a device that is functionally very similar to this device in his 1972 story Cloak of Anarchy.
Twice the usual number of copseyes floated overhead, waiting. Gold dots ageist blue, basketball-sized, twelve feet up. Each a television eye and a sonic stunner, each a hookup to police headquarters...
(Read more about Niven's copseyes)
Update 21-May-2009: Roger Zelazny created the idea of a hovering surveillance drone armed with gun in his excellent Hugo and Nebula award-nominated 1966 story This Moment of the Storm.
And he's a Hell Cop. Probably the worst possible job for him, having to keep up his attention in one place for so long. They say the job title comes from the name of an antique flying vehicle--a hellcopper, I think. We send our eyes on their appointed rounds, and they can hover or soar or back up, just like those old machines could. We patrol the city and the adjacent countryside. (Read more about Zelazny's eyes)
Thanks to Winchell Chung for pointing out this great reference.
From Wired.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 5/21/2009)
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