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Parrot Bebop Drone Landing at Apple Stores in December for $499
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While this is awesome technology, I believe devices like this will revolutionize modern terrorism.
As a former military member, the combat potential of these devices is obvious, and depending on payload capability, could make something like the Boston Marathon bombing look like child's play.
As it is written: Everything's permissible, but not everything is beneficial.
As a former military member, the combat potential of these devices is obvious, and depending on payload capability, could make something like the Boston Marathon bombing look like child's play.
As it is written: Everything's permissible, but not everything is beneficial.
What kind of equipment deserves to be called "professional" depends heavily on the profession. I know a videographer who is currently using the Phantom. I asked for his opinion about this product. If he thinks it could work for him then it's professional at that level. I am also looking into drones for use in my profession. I would not be using it for complicated video work (mainly stills), so it would be entirely professional as far as my profession is concerned.
It's also worth noting that the movie studios consider all of these products to be consumer-level. They spend ten times as much and more for their camera lifting platforms.
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The total flying weight of this drone is under one pound. Their "payloads" are a couple of ounces at most.
Well, I suppose you could use it to drop some firecrackers on neighborhood kids. Of course when I was growing up we called that "fun" instead of "terrorism"....
As others have already surmised, the gimmick with which this drone delivers gimbal-less HD video is sketchy, and to call it 1080P full HD borders on fraudulent.
The dirty little secret (okay, not such a secret, but definitely not explained to the average consumer) of the digital camera industry is that an image sensor is rated by the number of pixel sensors, not the number of actual delivered RGB pixels as like to think of them. It takes 3 pixel sensors (1 red, 1 blue, and 1 green) to make up one actual RGB pixel, and in a typical bayer filter there is an extra green sensor for each RGB pixel.
What this means to the end user is that a 14MP camera is actually taking a 3.5 MP image (14MP / 4 sensors per pixel) and the extra green sensor information and scaling it up to the 14MP advertised resolution. In terms of the Parrot Bebop, the floating 1920x1080 window inside the actual image frame is actually a 960x540 image that is resized to 1080P resolution. That is hardly what I would call "full HD 1080p"...
The dirty little secret (okay, not such a secret, but definitely not explained to the average consumer) of the digital camera industry is that an image sensor is rated by the number of pixel sensors, not the number of actual delivered RGB pixels as like to think of them. It takes 3 pixel sensors (1 red, 1 blue, and 1 green) to make up one actual RGB pixel, and in a typical bayer filter there is an extra green sensor for each RGB pixel.
What this means to the end user is that a 14MP camera is actually taking a 3.5 MP image (14MP / 4 sensors per pixel) and the extra green sensor information and scaling it up to the 14MP advertised resolution. In terms of the Parrot Bebop, the floating 1920x1080 window inside the actual image frame is actually a 960x540 image that is resized to 1080P resolution. That is hardly what I would call "full HD 1080p"...
Well, that's good, but are there some out there that can carry more than a few ounces?
RDX-based explosive is not heavy, and it could be easily molded into the drone's internal fuselage and rigged with a simple fuse/trigger. I see IED's taken to the next level here.
A terrorist cell could use several of them; these people are quite innovative and clever.
I believe what you are referring to here is essentially the same as the digital zoom effect. The size of the outputted frame is constant but only a portion of the CCD is being used to produce it. As far as megapixels are concerned, I think this stat is overworked and oversold. Most users can't much value out of 14MP images. The quality of the CCD, image stabilization, and optics, is the name of the game.
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It could happen, but I wouldn't spend any sleepless nights worrying about it. After 9/11 we heard all kinds of stories about how small airplanes had to be restricted because they could be packed with explosives. Nice theory, but nobody has ever done it.
