China launches high-tech bird drones
Up there! A pretty small bird gliding majestically throughout the skies, encapsulating the attractiveness of na — oh wait. It is a surveillance drone.
Over the last few decades, over 30 Chinese army and government agencies have been allegedly using drones designed to seem like birds to surveil China’s citizens in at least five provinces, according to the South China Morning Post Sunday.
The bird-like drones mimic the flapping wings of a true bird employing a set of crank-rockers driven by an electric engine. Each drone includes a high definition camera, GPS antenna, flight management system and data link with satellite communication capacity, according to the Post.
The program is allegedly code-named “Dove” and operated by Song Bifeng, a professor in Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xi’an. Song was previously a senior scientist about the Chengdu J-20, Asia’s initial fifth-generation stealth fighter jet, according to the Post.
The drone applies facial recognition, artificial intelligence, smart eyeglasses and other technology to track its 1.4 billion citizens with the purpose of one day providing them a private score based on how they act.
Though the “scale remains small”, according to Yang Wenqing, a part of Song’s staff in a remark to the Article, the investigators “think the technology has great potential for large-scale usage later on… it’s some special benefits to fulfill with the requirement for drones from the army and civilian businesses.”
