6 ms·

A tiny forest tribe built a DIY drone from YouTube to fight off illegal loggers

150 points by vezycash 10y ago

howfun 10y ago
Very cool!
gressquel 10y ago
Amazing. If most of the human race were wiped out by a meteorite then we need more of such engineering minds to get us back to the advanced civilisation we are :)
- asdfologist 10y ago
  Ironically it's also precisely those engineering minds who have built weapons capable of wiping out the human race.
  - taneq 10y ago
    You're welcome to go get eaten by a tiger or starve to death.
  - JumpCrisscross 10y ago
    I don't think that's ironic. I, inspired by Kardashev [1], believe a civilisation's level of technological advancement can be measured by how much energy it controls. Thus, a civilisation that can control an energy source at a low-power level (e.g. boiling water reactors) can presumably also deploy it at a high-power level (e.g. atomic bombs). If anything, especially as sources become more energetic, control capabilities will be preceded by deployment capability. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale
- dogma1138 10y ago
  What exactly is the amazing engineering here? buying an off the shelf toy and using it to film illegal logging?
new299 10y ago
TLDR: They're using a drone to take video of the illegal logging. I'd guess a couple of questions come to mind. The first is, wouldn't satellite imagery identify illegal logging? I guess that might be too expensive? If those images are not detailed enough, what kind of information do they need, other than where/when logging is taking place.
- pjc50 10y ago
  Registration plates of vehicles involved would be useful, and generally this needs to be taken from an angle rather than above and requires high resolution.
- spraak 10y ago
  I'd guess that it's better for them to have as much in their hands (literally) as they can. I think that creating a satellite has a much higher entry level, and if they need to pay someone for the images, it may be much harder for them. It also may not offer as real time as they need, whereas they can directly control when and where to fly this drone.
- goodcanadian 10y ago
  Satellite imagery would likely show that it is happening, but it would not provide any evidence as to who is doing it.
- substack 10y ago
  Much of the Amazon basin is covered in clouds most of the time. Landsat 8 doesn't have good coverage.
jjoonathan 10y ago
Here's hoping that the government actually does something about the logging."You can't prove it's happening" sounds like more of an excuse than a reason. I'm sure the tribe has their doubts too, but I wish them luck.
dannypgh 10y ago
Am I the only one who thought this article took a condescending tone by referring to this as "incredible?" If a 15 year old white kid in Nebraska built a drone following directions on YouTube to monitor land use around him, I don't think this would be seen as incredible. The difference is a lot of people have very demeaning views of indigenous peoples - they believe they are frozen in time (usually at the time of first contact with white people) and therefore they are surprised to hear that, no, this nation (like any other) is in fact able to use technology.
- praveer13 10y ago
  I think you're looking for something to take offense to without any reason. A tribe from a poor country building these things from videos they saw on internet is certainly more impressive than a 15 year old american kid doing the same. The reason is not that they can't be that capable, the difference is that these people have not been exposed to education, environment, schools, infrastructure, computers etc like a kid from the most developed country in the world. That is what is impressive here. You can't compare the two because of the background they come from, not because they are inferior.
  - spraak 10y ago
    I can definitely see why the GP (er.. I'm not sure if that's correct term here on HN - I mean the post to which my reply is in reply to) would feel that way, and it was almost my own reaction. I appreciate your explanation as to why, looking deeper, that it is actually well framed.
  - dogma1138 10y ago
    True; but this isn't some "stone age" tribe from the Amazon that shoots arrows at passing helicopters. They are exposed to the modern world; even if they don't have access to its amenities all the time. They understand the concepts of flight, electricity, the internet and modern techonology at large. The village in question has a facebook page, if you google it you'll see that there are enough results like this one http://www.gy.undp.org/content/guyana/en/home/presscenter/articles/2016/04/22/-south-central-people-s-development-association-awarded-equator-prize-in-shulinab-village-region-9-guyana.html http://www.gy.undp.org/content/guyana/en/home/presscenter/ar... to show that whilst it's fairly undeveloped it's not exactly "backwater". People in that village seem to have cell phones, internet access, and are not really cut off from the world, the article seem to frame it like they went from sharpening wooden arrows on stones to building drones which they clearly haven't. So yeah, I don't really see what is so amazing about a few people in a remote village constructing an over the counter drone[0] I would actually be insulted by the fact that I'm expected to be "amazed" by that and I find the entire notion very condescending towards those people. If you strip down the fluff of the article it almost boils down to "How quaint, look at these savages constructing RC aircraft".... [0]http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/phantom-fx-61-flying-wing-110-km-flight http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/phantom-fx-61-flying-win...
xwowsersx 10y ago
This is really cool. I guess it's sort of obvious, but surveilling large areas of land in order to cultivate or manage seems like such a great use case for drones.
dang 10y ago
We changed the url from http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-a-tribe-is-fighting-off-loggers-with-a-drone-they-built-watching-youtube http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-a-tribe-is-fighting..., which points to this. Submitters: Please follow the HN guideline that asks you to submit the original when one story points to another. Besides giving credit where due or at least further upstream to the source, the articles tend to get fluffier the further downstream you are.
micheljones 10y ago
Dear SJW, Thank you for your help in getting president Donald Trump elected.
- spraak 10y ago
  I don't understand the point you're trying to make.
  - micheljones 10y ago
    That's ok.
- sctb 10y ago
  We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13254288 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13254288 and marked it off-topic.
stefantalpalaru 10y ago
> built a DIY drone from YouTube No, they just assembled a chinese kit by watching an instruction video, like every other amateur UAV owner out there.
at-fates-hands 10y ago
Wow, it's been a while since I've seen ethnocentrism displayed in such an obvious manner. The article seems to equate indigenous people with a lack of intelligence for some reason - yet in many of the photos in the article, you clearly see technology they have is current and are able to use it effectively (they have a FB page?). This really comes across as, "Look at the these rain forest people, isn't it cute they built something with "our" technology?"

150 points by vezycash 10y ago

Very cool!

Amazing. If most of the human race were wiped out by a meteorite then we need more of such engineering minds to get us back to the advanced civilisation we are :)

asdfologist 10y ago
Ironically it's also precisely those engineering minds who have built weapons capable of wiping out the human race.
- taneq 10y ago
  You're welcome to go get eaten by a tiger or starve to death.
- JumpCrisscross 10y ago
  I don't think that's ironic. I, inspired by Kardashev [1], believe a civilisation's level of technological advancement can be measured by how much energy it controls. Thus, a civilisation that can control an energy source at a low-power level (e.g. boiling water reactors) can presumably also deploy it at a high-power level (e.g. atomic bombs). If anything, especially as sources become more energetic, control capabilities will be preceded by deployment capability. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale
dogma1138 10y ago
What exactly is the amazing engineering here? buying an off the shelf toy and using it to film illegal logging?

new299 10y ago

TLDR: They're using a drone to take video of the illegal logging. I'd guess a couple of questions come to mind. The first is, wouldn't satellite imagery identify illegal logging? I guess that might be too expensive? If those images are not detailed enough, what kind of information do they need, other than where/when logging is taking place.

pjc50 10y ago
Registration plates of vehicles involved would be useful, and generally this needs to be taken from an angle rather than above and requires high resolution.
spraak 10y ago
I'd guess that it's better for them to have as much in their hands (literally) as they can. I think that creating a satellite has a much higher entry level, and if they need to pay someone for the images, it may be much harder for them. It also may not offer as real time as they need, whereas they can directly control when and where to fly this drone.
goodcanadian 10y ago
Satellite imagery would likely show that it is happening, but it would not provide any evidence as to who is doing it.
substack 10y ago
Much of the Amazon basin is covered in clouds most of the time. Landsat 8 doesn't have good coverage.

jjoonathan 10y ago

Here's hoping that the government actually does something about the logging."You can't prove it's happening" sounds like more of an excuse than a reason. I'm sure the tribe has their doubts too, but I wish them luck.

dannypgh 10y ago

Am I the only one who thought this article took a condescending tone by referring to this as "incredible?" If a 15 year old white kid in Nebraska built a drone following directions on YouTube to monitor land use around him, I don't think this would be seen as incredible. The difference is a lot of people have very demeaning views of indigenous peoples - they believe they are frozen in time (usually at the time of first contact with white people) and therefore they are surprised to hear that, no, this nation (like any other) is in fact able to use technology.

praveer13 10y ago
I think you're looking for something to take offense to without any reason. A tribe from a poor country building these things from videos they saw on internet is certainly more impressive than a 15 year old american kid doing the same. The reason is not that they can't be that capable, the difference is that these people have not been exposed to education, environment, schools, infrastructure, computers etc like a kid from the most developed country in the world. That is what is impressive here. You can't compare the two because of the background they come from, not because they are inferior.
- spraak 10y ago
  I can definitely see why the GP (er.. I'm not sure if that's correct term here on HN - I mean the post to which my reply is in reply to) would feel that way, and it was almost my own reaction. I appreciate your explanation as to why, looking deeper, that it is actually well framed.
- dogma1138 10y ago
  True; but this isn't some "stone age" tribe from the Amazon that shoots arrows at passing helicopters. They are exposed to the modern world; even if they don't have access to its amenities all the time. They understand the concepts of flight, electricity, the internet and modern techonology at large. The village in question has a facebook page, if you google it you'll see that there are enough results like this one http://www.gy.undp.org/content/guyana/en/home/presscenter/articles/2016/04/22/-south-central-people-s-development-association-awarded-equator-prize-in-shulinab-village-region-9-guyana.html http://www.gy.undp.org/content/guyana/en/home/presscenter/ar... to show that whilst it's fairly undeveloped it's not exactly "backwater". People in that village seem to have cell phones, internet access, and are not really cut off from the world, the article seem to frame it like they went from sharpening wooden arrows on stones to building drones which they clearly haven't. So yeah, I don't really see what is so amazing about a few people in a remote village constructing an over the counter drone[0] I would actually be insulted by the fact that I'm expected to be "amazed" by that and I find the entire notion very condescending towards those people. If you strip down the fluff of the article it almost boils down to "How quaint, look at these savages constructing RC aircraft".... [0]http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/phantom-fx-61-flying-wing-110-km-flight http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/phantom-fx-61-flying-win...

xwowsersx 10y ago

This is really cool. I guess it's sort of obvious, but surveilling large areas of land in order to cultivate or manage seems like such a great use case for drones.

dang 10y ago

We changed the url from http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-a-tribe-is-fighting-off-loggers-with-a-drone-they-built-watching-youtube http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-a-tribe-is-fighting..., which points to this. Submitters: Please follow the HN guideline that asks you to submit the original when one story points to another. Besides giving credit where due or at least further upstream to the source, the articles tend to get fluffier the further downstream you are.

micheljones 10y ago

Dear SJW, Thank you for your help in getting president Donald Trump elected.

spraak 10y ago
I don't understand the point you're trying to make.
- micheljones 10y ago
  That's ok.
sctb 10y ago
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13254288 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13254288 and marked it off-topic.

stefantalpalaru 10y ago

> built a DIY drone from YouTube No, they just assembled a chinese kit by watching an instruction video, like every other amateur UAV owner out there.

at-fates-hands 10y ago

Wow, it's been a while since I've seen ethnocentrism displayed in such an obvious manner. The article seems to equate indigenous people with a lack of intelligence for some reason - yet in many of the photos in the article, you clearly see technology they have is current and are able to use it effectively (they have a FB page?). This really comes across as, "Look at the these rain forest people, isn't it cute they built something with "our" technology?"