China launches high-tech bird drones to watch over its citizens
China launches high-tech bird drones to watch over its
citizens
They're called Doves and they don't come in peace.
BY JENNIFER BISSET AUGUST 2, 2018 4:56 PM PDT South China Morning Post
Look! Up there! A pretty little bird gliding majestically
through the sky, encapsulating the beauty of natu -- oh wait. It's a high-tech
surveillance drone.
Over recent years, more than 30 Chinese military and
government agencies have reportedly been using drones made to look like birds
to surveil citizens in at least five provinces, according to the South China
Morning Post.
The program is reportedly codenamed "Dove" and
run by Song Bifeng, a professor at Northwestern Polytechnical University in
Xi'an. Song was formerly a senior scientist on the Chengdu J-20, Asia's first
fifth-generation stealth fighter jet, according to the Post.
The bird-like drones mimic the flapping wings of a real
bird using a pair of crank-rockers driven by an electric motor. Each drone has
a high-definition camera, GPS antenna, flight control system and a data link
with satellite communication capability, the Post reports.
While the "scale is still small", according to
Yang Wenqing, a member of Song's team who commented to the Post, the
researchers "believe the technology has good potential for large-scale use
in the future ... it has some unique advantages to meet the demand for drones
in the military and civilian sectors."
Beijing's surveillance technologies, however discreet,
can be avoided. But these drones will open a "new level of
intrusiveness," Timothy R. Heath, senior international defense research
analyst at global policy think tank The RAND Corporation, told CNET via email.
"Although the bird drones will likely be deployed in
restive provinces like Xinjiang, any Chinese person should assume that their
behavior could be under surveillance and their behavior recorded, no matter
where they go outdoors," he said. "China's use of bird drones will
extend the government's surveillance to a frightening new level."
China also employs facial recognition, artificial
intelligence, smart glasses and other technologies to monitor its 1.4 billion
citizens with the aim of one day giving each of them a personal score based on
how they behave.
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