Photo Gallery Drone Worries in Germany
Advances in drone technology, largely driven by a creative DIY community, are making them smaller and cheaper. "Just eight years ago, most systems went for more than 100,000 ($130,000)," says Heinrich Warmers, a professor of electrical engineering at the Bremen University of Applied Sciences. "But, today, I can buy the entire control technology, including a compass and GPS, on a single chip for only 10."
A drone from the French company Parrot: For relatively little money, drones are making a new form of private and public surveillance possible. "It's a revolution in the sky," says Wolfgang Neskovic, a member of the German parliament, the Bundestag, for the far-left Left Party. He also describes it as "a constitutional nightmare."
The technology behind the systems is constantly advancing. Raphael Pirker, a computer science student in Zürich, flies his aircraft between high buildings in Berlin and New York using virtual-reality goggles and a system called "first-person view." When his drone plunges from a tall building, Pirker has the sensation of diving into the abyss from the perspective of a bird of prey.
The US military is developing tiny drones that look like insects. It recently unveiled a prototype for a miniature drone the size of a mosquito. In the private sphere, the US company AeroVironment introduced the "Nano Hummingbird" flying robot last year. As small as a hummingbird, the device is capable of sitting on a branch and recording conversations unnoticed.
