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Be skeptical of Ring's indoor security drone
- slezyr 6y agoWhatever, not interested in burglars. I could've used that thing to check basic status of the apartment that I don't use. Broken windows, water leaks and stuff.
- gbear0 6y agoThis seems like a much more useful usecase to me than burglars, but apparently you can't manually control the device beyond automated paths, which makes this almost useless I think. But even if you could manually control the device, I'd be too afraid of having Amazon capturing full video of all my belongings. They have the resources to easily hook up the feed to an object detection ETL or some other AI system to extract a ton of information about the owners, and then sell that as specialized advertising intelligence. All of a sudden my mailbox fills up with lots of high focused ads. OK I realize that's probably going down the conspiracy theory path a little much :), but I don't think it's too far off.
- pc86 6y agoHonestly I would be shocked if that's not the goal. Imagine being able to not only know someone has your product, but not advertise to them until that product disappears, is in a state of disrepair, or reaches a particular age.
- the-pigeon 6y agoIt wouldn't surprise me if this was a goal but they should really figure out basic recommendations first. I just bought a power washer. I bought it on Amazon. Amazon easily knows I now own a power washer. And yet Amazon is giving me a ton of recommendations for power washers. This is a constant problem with recommendations and everyone I know has the same experience. And unless there's some sort of data regulation preventing them from applying my purchase history to their recommendations it's ridiculously easy to fix. Tag item categories as "1 per household over x months" and when someone purchase amount goes beyond the threshold stop recommending products from that category until x months has passed.
- ponker 6y agoDo you seriously think that Amazon never thought of not showing you a second power washer? The data must show that this is more profitable than the alternatives.
- bussierem 6y agoI have Google advertising to me, on my Pixel 3a using Google Fi, in my Gmail app, telling me about how I should sign up for Google Fi. I have a pretty good hunch that these companies often do stupid stuff like this.
- ghaff 6y agoAnd Verizon is constantly mailing me to switch to FIOS. And when I look on their site to look up FIOS availability, it's not actually available. For some reason, both Comcast and Verizon also have my address as a variant on my real postal service address that hasn't been true since before I moved here over 20 years ago.
- badwolf 6y agoSame with vacuum cleaners. How many does Amazon really think I need in my 1 bedroom, hardwood floor apartment.
- pc86 6y agoJust one more, man.
- ghaff 6y agoIt seems to be a general problem with recommendation engines. I assume that manually tagging certain types of items with a flag that means "The buyer is unlikely to buy another item in this category within a meaningful timeframe no matter how often we recommend it" is more effort than the recommendation slot is worth. There are probably a number of flags one could imagine setting but it's likely very hard to automate because it requires understanding how people use/consume/upgrade/etc. a given item.
- uptown 6y agoOf course that's what they'll use it for. Don't worry -- the terms and conditions that nobody reads or could understand even if they did read, says they just send "metadata" back to improve the user experience.
- beambot 6y agoI'm the founder of Cobalt Robotics [1]. We develop "security" robots for commercial spaces -- though ours are wheeled, have a screen for 2-way video chats, etc. Turns out that security is a euphemism for "observation & reporting." Use cases span a host of shared services: Traditional Security, Employee Health & Safety, Facilities Management (e.g. leaks & spills), Customer Service, and others. Breaking & Enterings do happen, but they are rare. Facilities incidents such as the ones you mentioned are vastly more common. [1] https://www.cobaltrobotics.com/ https://www.cobaltrobotics.com/
- thelazydogsback 6y agoJust curious - is there a chart on your site comparing you to Knightscope or other offerings?
- beambot 6y agoWe haven't shared one publicly, though I have plenty in private slide decks. Feel free to reach out (email in profile). A few highlights: * We are exclusively indoors at this time. * We're the only indoor provider that can manage doors & elevators. * We have 2-way video in addition to 2-way audio. * We provide a comprehensive service: hardware, software, service & maintenance, and remote monitoring. * We manage multiple, redundant 24/7 command centers, with operators speaking dozens of languages. * We have SOC2 certifications & deal with GDPR - shockingly, no other providers are SOC2 certified. * We offer rich applications on the robot's screen, including visitor management, forms, etc. * We can perform COVID-related features, such as elevated temperature screening using FLIR cameras, promoting social distancing, and enforcing PPE. * We support international operations too.
- sudosysgen 6y agoWouldn't a remote controlled drone over the internet fulfill those purposes? Would be relatively cheap to get working.
- reaperducer 6y agoWouldn't a remote controlled drone over the internet fulfill those purposes? Would be relatively cheap to get working. I think the majority of people aren't very good at flying drones. Even outside, it can take a lot of practice. People don't want to spend hours or days learning how to fly a drone in their homes. They want stuff to just work.
- ansible 6y ago> I think the majority of people aren't very good at flying drones. Even outside, it can take a lot of practice. I crashed and broke my VTOL airplane twice last weekend. Sighs dramatically. Pilot error. More seriously, there's a couple main issues: piloting, and recharging. You'd want the drone to not crash into anything, and remote controlling the drone with Internet-induced lag would be especially challenging. There's a reason why FPV setups for race drones use analog video still. Also, just as with making a household wheeled security robot, you can do that right now, but the automatic return to the charging base is not widely available as a commercial product.
- sudosysgen 6y agoYou would use a hybrid solution, where the drone is still aware of its surroundings and provides a simplified control interface.
- alkonaut 6y agoThat’s exactly what I want. Just like “wouldn’t a doorbell with a video feed connected to your own computer fulfill those purposes?” for a ring doorbell. Yes! But I want a product, not tinkering. The appeal of this isn’t just what it does but that it does it right after I unpack it. I want it to fly by itself using some wizardry that a person at a huge company cooked up. I just don’t want it to phone home to do it. That’s what I want in the “standalone” one too. Mass market product appeal. No tinkering.
- babo 6y agoand the ability to open and close doors...
- humblebee 6y agoYes, I think this could actually be a good product, or at least something similar to it for anyone who suffers from OCD. I think a lot of smart devices can help people. Maybe there is a better product though.
- chasd00 6y agothat's an interesting thought. Use it to fly around a lake house after a storm looking for damage.
- thescriptkiddie 6y agoWhy do you have an apartment that you don't use?
- ponker 6y agoI’d love a small robot that I could put inside the walls of my house that would crawl around and check for water leaks, bugs, etc.
- biztos 6y agoI also find it interesting for a place I leave empty for months at a time, but for that purpose doesn't it seem... fragile? Seriously: I haven't put in a camera because my DSL craps out every month or so and requires a hard modem reboot to reconnect, which seems like a lot to ask from the friend who checks my mail. I would love to see a solution tailored to people not in their domiciles, but I don't feel like this is it. This announcement (not yet a product!) is for people who really need to look around the places they're going to return to in a day or two anyway, max. Maybe that's a market; it's not me.
- richardw 6y agoOne option for ADSL: power timer plug. Turn off from 3am for 5 min.
- mc32 6y agoThis thing is amusing. The one advantage it has over in place cameras is that it can try to go get a better view of the perps’ face, especially if it had a camera pointing up for hoodie wearing perps. But it’s probably not agile enough to manoeuver like that. Maybe the annoyance is enough to chase away burglars and such —they are actively reminded they’re being recorded and it’s not as easy to de-energize and disconnect as regular home sec cams.
- uptown 6y agoWhat perps? The venn diagram of affluent homeowners who own a home surveillance drone with houses that happen to get broken into is infinitesimal. This is about data collection.
- mc32 6y agoAt $250 more people will get them. People waste money on more useless garbage than this. Home invasions and breaking into garages has gone up significantly in SF —if they already have Ring, which many do if I go by NextDoor, I’m sure a few will pick this up.
- aeternum 6y agoMy bet is the more likely use-case will be using it to check on pets.
- Falling3 6y agoI'm inclined to agree, but I'm wondering if there's any data to support that.
- phreenet 6y agoI find this drone concept interesting. I can't wait for the footage of this product interacting with house cats.
- Gys 6y ago> “They’re using this type of consumer data to create a database version of who you are, and then using it to sell you things. The data collected is increasingly invasive, as with the Ring drone capabilities, such as mapping your home and collecting audio and dynamic aerial video of you and your family in your bedrooms, bathrooms, everywhere you live.” > As this July article from the EFF points out, “with a warrant, police could also circumvent the device’s owner and get footage straight from Amazon, even if the owner denied the police.” The EFF is talking about the Ring doorbell camera here, but it’s not clear to me that the Ring drone would be an exception. Yes, creepy does not even begin to describe my feelings.
- jariel 6y agoThe chances you will be away from home, a burglar is at your door, and you're actually notified quickly enough and you're available to fly your drone around the house and catch a glimpse of a bad guy ... are almost 0, and it may not make a difference anyhow. This is a 'novel' toy, the kind of cool factor that transcends use case. 'Aspirational Utility' it's called. Dude's can spend $300 on it 'because it's useful' they will tell themselves.
- lostgame 6y agotbh as much as I’d love to tell myself it isn’t - and I use my iOS (and now WatchOS) dev career to justify it - but the Apple Watch kind of fits neatly for me in this would-be category. It’s more cool and interesting than it is functional.
- ls612 6y agoFor the watch both the fitness and activity features and being able to get all my notifications on my wrist are great features. A few other things (like having my 2FA codes easily accessible and controlling music) are also nice
- sfotm 6y agoI'm right with you on the fitness bit, there. Having GPS for all of my runs is fantastic, and you don't have to carry around your whole phone. Music is also nice, especially if you have it on the local storage.
- Shared404 6y agoI would think it would be more for things like "Did I leave the stove on" then "Is someone breaking in". That being said, I will never buy this because Ring is untrustworthy.
- lm28469 6y agoI've seen a few people commenting about this stove issue. I can't believe anyone seriously thinks the answer to "some people forget to turn off their stove sometimes" is "indoor drone streaming data to mega corporations". There are auto switch off devices for both gas and electric stoves by the way.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- opwieurposiu 6y agoThis is genus, all it needs is an airsoft gun and it would be perfect!
- mikro2nd 6y agoDoesn't need a gun, just an aerosol can of fluorescent dye.
- DesiLurker 6y agoSo basically you install a snitch for the biggest corporation on earth that does not needs a warrant to share any of the recording with the police so you can have a neat toy. And I thought ring was creepy.
- stronglikedan 6y ago"It looks like you're running low on {insert random product}. Would you like to buy more?"
- reaperducer 6y ago"It looks like you're running low on {insert random product}. Would you like to buy more?" My air cleaning machine has the option to phone home and automatically order replacement filters. 3M has an air filter that Bluetooths with an app that will automatically order new air filters. The copier at work automatically orders new toner when it runs low. (Though not soon enough, and the threshold is not adjustable.) I had an HP home printer that also had this ability.
- thesuitonym 6y ago"It looks like you're running low on {product}. I have ordered Amazon Basics {product}. Please check your email if you would like to cancel the order in the next thirty minutes."
- RandallBrown 6y agoDo you have a source for them not needing a warrant? Is it just in the Ring terms of service or something?
- jonahhorowitz 6y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-party_doctrine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-party_doctrine
- jschwartzi 6y agoYeah most of these companies say "we'll share your information with local law enforcement upon request and we may require a warrant at our discretion."
- sarthakjshetty 6y agoDoes anyone have any idea of the SLAM architecture running onboard these systems?
- president 6y agoPeople were saying similar things about newer Roomba vacuums that have the capability of mapping out your home and are internet-connected.
- reaperducer 6y agoRoombas are internet-connected, but not internet-controlled. They can only be turned on or off via the internet. Also, Roombas aren't all that great at mapping your home, unless you live in an empty shipping container with no furniture. I've seen the maps that my Roomba creates. They are useless for anything other than their intended purposes: Showing wifi signal strength.
- nsxwolf 6y agoMy old dead-reckoning model eventually vacuums the whole floor if you let it run long enough.
- reaperducer 6y agoIt's not about getting to the whole house, it's that the maps are not useful because they exclude furniture and other obstacles. What you end up with is a map that is no more useful than seeing the building footprint from an online map.
- hyko 6y agoBe Skeptical of Ring
- moomin 6y agoI never predicted that we’d end up actually paying to build a corporate controlled surveillance dystopia, but here we are.
- imglorp 6y agoIt's all partly subsidized by the US government. https://action.aclu.org/petition/amazon-stop-selling-surveillance https://action.aclu.org/petition/amazon-stop-selling-surveil... (Ex?) NSA is literally now on the Board https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24426500 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24426500
- stevehawk 6y agohe's not on the board to push cameras. he's on the board to help amazon win defense contracts.
- mikro2nd 6y agoAlways possible for a person to have more than one purpose/goal in doing a job.
- unionpivo 6y agowho says that ring deployments aren't defense contracts. Just because amazon said they are sharing footage with police departments doesn't mean they aren't sharing it with other federal agencies
- hinkley 6y ago1984 sort of glosses over how the monitoring hardware ends up in everyone's homes, but I think it's safe to say that they participated in the installations in the beginning.
- moomin 6y agoI think when 1984 was published (1949) it was generally assumed most people had a pretty good idea how to create a surveillance state.
- uS436aRs6BbC30c 6y agoNo, thanks. I already have a couple of security drones. Their names are Sig and Mossberg.
- reaperducer 6y agoThe author of the article says that a network of regular security cameras is a better solution. He must not be married. There's no way my wife would allow all those wires everywhere. And the wireless security cameras are a pain because you have to remember to recharge them. Now, before the wannabe This Old House crowd starts up with "You just put the wires in the walls," consider that 43% of Americans rent their homes, and the number is even higher in other countries. The vast majority of landlords won't allow you to run wires in the walls. That said, there's NFW I would have one of these in my house because I don't trust any tech company to have a camera in my house. It's marketed as a security device, but it's not like a toy quadcopter is going to stop an intruder any better than a non-flying camera. Which means "not at all." If you want home security that can reach all parts of your home, and provide alerts when someone breaks in, get a dog. No, the dog can't alert you when you're not home, but again, it's not like you can do anything about a break-in when you're not home either way. Then again, iOS has the built-in ability to detect dogs barking and react to that. Perhaps in the not-too-distant future, your Homepod can detect the dog barking and hit you with a text message.
- gjulianm 6y agoI mean, who actually does need an array of security cameras? Traditional alarms work well without the need for cameras, specially when cameras are simply defeated by a face covering. At that point, the camera is just a glorified motion sensor. In the case of the drone, it's just a geeky toy that will be inevitably marketed via fear-mongering, so they can collect even more data on you.
- the-pigeon 6y agoMy only thought for practical use would be to checkup on a pet while you are away from home. Since if the pet has feel roam of the house you can't necessarily see if from a stationary camera.
- reaperducer 6y agoPoint the camera at the food dish. When I go away, I put my old launch-day iPhone on a dock and aim it at the food dish. I has an app that polls that camera and checks for movement. If movement is detected, it sends a series of stills to me by e-mail. The app is no longer available on the App Store, but it keeps working because the iPhone is too old to connect to the App Store and be told that the app no longer exists. But I should think that there's a modern equivalent out there somewhere.
- alkonaut 6y agoI’d be perfectly happy to buy tons of gadgetry like ring and nest products just so long as it doesn’t need some kind of cloud service, and it doesn’t need any kind of subscription. The drone looks really well designed and practical (compared to buying dozens of separate cameras you can have just a couple, and a drone). Yet most things that come to market are exactly this. Cloud services, subsctiptions and integration with these “smart speakers” (I’m not getting one of those either, so long as they are connected to whoever sold it rather than just to the weather web service). I wish someone who didn’t have an interest in knowing everything about everyone but could actually make money from hardware would do this. Is there really no market for that?
- umvi 6y agoDon't pretty much all drones need internet access in order to confirm it is not flying in a restricted area? Unless you baked in the maps beforehand, I suppose. My brother bought a drone to inspect my parents' roof for damage, but then he couldn't even fly it until it updated the maps and after that there was baked in DRM saying the current GPS coordinates were restricted (likely because of nearby military base) and the drone refused to take off. Seems like the golden age of drones for hobbyist pilots was before all the regulation kicked in, but in this case perhaps Ring could get an exception to restricted areas since they are indoor drones.
- piker 6y ago> there was baked in DRM saying the current GPS coordinates were restricted seems like you've answered your own question there
- umvi 6y agoWell I suppose it's possible to have a drone that doesn't need internet access as long as all the maps are pre-loaded. But since new airports are built and restricted areas are updated, most drones require internet to update the maps.
- tshaddox 6y ago
- everyone 6y agoJust put a gun on it and it will kick ass!
- lukeinator42 6y agoI get that people have security concerns about the fact that it's internet connected (and is a ring/amazon product), but any $250 drone that can charge itself and perform indoor SLAM is pretty cool as a robotics platform! I wonder if they'll release an SDK for it.
- jfk13 6y agoI don't know why it came to mind, but: > One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them ...
- foxdev 6y agoThe 2018 sci-fi/horror movie Tau showed the endgame of in-home security drones. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tau_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tau_(film)
- chiefalchemist 6y agoDoes the fact that this camera is non-fixed have some sort of obscure legal implications. Yeah, sounds silly. But as the article points out, the product itself feels silly. So why is that? Often, under such circumstances, legal plays into it.
- asou 6y agoGet an alarm with some renters insurance. The security on these cameras are pretty trash. I think Ring got hacked , having strangers watch me all day is a scary thought.
- kyancey 6y agoMost of the comments here seem to think this is designed to track a perp in your house. My assumption is that it's for people who want to check if the gas was left on or spy on their pet.
- smhinsey 6y agoThis thing is simultaneously the harbinger of techno-dystopia and something I can see being really useful in my vacation rental to check up on things between guests. This is part of why these ideas are so insidious.
- bitmunk 6y agoOnly a first world rich person could believe that this trinket is in any way useful. Hit the toy with a stick, take all valuables you see, run like hell. Congratulations, you have footage of the guy! Now what do you do? The police can't be bothered, and they shouldn't, why waste more tax dollars than your TV is worth recovering it? Get a dog, add motion sensors if you feel like it. Vote for social programs and pay the taxes instead of buying data-mining toys.
- Baeocystin 6y agoIf such a tool existed while my parents were still alive and I was taking care of them, I would have bought it in a heartbeat. Eldercare givers are often housebound for years, because something as simple as going to the grocery store or the pharmacy becomes an ordeal, especially if the parent in question is suffering from Alzheimer's or the like.
- bitmunk 6y agoPerhaps I was too categorical, it is an useless toy... In the context of home security, in others like eldercare or checking the state of unoccupied buildings it might be useful. Even then I don't think it would in that case, my personal experience tells me that it could be distressing to someone who's disoriented, drones aren't exactly quiet. (Also it apparently it only moves in premade paths) A GoPro-esque camera with streaming attached to clothing could be better at that.
- Baeocystin 6y agoI 100% agree that noise could be a problem. Something worn tends to be removed/broken by confused hands. A pre-defined path is not ideal, for sure. But I expect a more controllable version will eventually follow.
- renewiltord 6y agoAnything that gets rid of pointless anxiety for me is good. If I can have someone in the passenger seat search for the cabin keys while I drive back home, or check if I turned off the stove, or that the fridge door is closed, or that I left the tap not running, or the windows closed, or that I left enough food for the itty bitty cataroons. But I use drugs, so I'm sorry homie, I ain't giving the cops straightline access into the house.
- footballnate29 6y agoI was like "yeah yeah yeah same" until the drug part haha
- renewiltord 6y agoHaha! Objective achieved! Psychedelics maaaan, it's a magical journey, man. Entheogens are a great way to search for meaning, dude.
- aaron695 6y agoFuck the security. As long as it blows up dust and my air filter cleans it, I have a clean house. And I won't die early from the PM2.5, I think. It's a contradiction. Need to practical run over months. Perhaps need to only have the drone going when not around. Or maybe it's like asbestos and you should leave dust alone.
- ipqk 6y agoI could see a case where you don't want a permanent camera in your bedroom, but having one that can fly into there when an alarm goes off is a good alternative.
- jkestner 6y agoIt'll be totally normal to find the Amazon drone scanning my bookshelves, toy shelves, pantry shelves. I wonder to what extent Amazon (or whoever) scans for other identifiable devices on the subnet.
- jondubois 6y agoI don't understand how a human being could be gullible enough to put corporate surveillance devices inside their homes, let alone pay for them! Where the heck are these people? Why I can't seem to find them in real life? I'd be a lot richer! Seriously, if you're one of these people, you should send me 10 Bitcoins and I'll install a high definition surveillance camera and microphone in every room of your home and live stream everything online... I'll even sell your data to third parties so that they can decide the result of the election on your behalf automatically. You'll love it!
- animationwill 6y ago>> But this potential privacy feature also comes with privacy risks, says Ryan Calo, associate professor at the University of Washington School of Law, in Seattle. “Fixed cameras can be avoided, whereas mobile ones can’t, which can make it impossible for a child, spouse, or roommate to get away from the camera,” he explains. That is a contrived argument. The first time it launches without my permission, i would knock it out of the air and immediately return it or trash it. It’s not like you would just continue to own it when you’re scared of it
- basicplus2 6y agoThis is about abuse by a spouse. An abused spouse would be beaten for damaging the equipment the abuser monitors the abusee with.
- animationwill 6y agoThat’s a different argument sure, but that’s not the argument here.
- nieve 6y agoPlease reread that paragraph, that was exactly the argument here.
- wheybags 6y agoI could never understand why someone would want security cameras inside their home. What is it for? It always struck me as a weird American paranoid thing. And just for the record, yes I have been burgled before.
- brokencode 6y agoThe hacker news crowd was never going to like this product, but I think it’s genius. I’m pretty sure I’d never buy one myself, but this is a grade A gift for somebody who: 1. Never wants anything, so you never know what to get them. 2. Vaguely worries about security. Which describes my parents and the parents of a lot other people I know. It’s perfect because it scratches their itch for security, while also being futuristic and cool, unlike a regular camera system. Many consumers have already invited big tech companies into their homes with Echo et al, and it’s clear that privacy is not a primary concern for many people.
- SamBam 6y ago> It’s perfect because it scratches their itch for security My gut instinct is that these kinds of products create an itch for security. When we had our first baby, we considered a video monitor, but my wife is quite anxious -- and also very self-aware -- and knew that if she got one she'd be starting at the screen constantly making sure she could detect a moving chest. Then people started getting the wearable baby monitors that automatical check breathing. You can imagine how much anxiety soared. "Is it reading correctly? What if the monitors have just stopped working? And why has it been 20 seconds since the last update?" We got an audio monitor that only responded to loud noises. Our parents generation, of course, didn't even have that, and were even less anxious than us. I think the more you get into these kinds of products, the more you starting thinking about it, and the more you start thinking about what you're not monitoring, and what you are missing in your system, and how you didn't check the feed yet today while on holiday...
- orev 6y agoIf you’d never buy one yourself (you don’t say why, so I’ll assume basic privacy reasons) why would you possibly buy one for other people? Presumably as part of the HN crowd you have some skills to be able to protect yourself, so why would you give one to people who have no such skills?
- gherkinnn 6y ago> Never want anything and you never know what to get them? Just don’t get them anything. Maybe just some fancy wind sausage. It’s not that hard. The compulsion to fill people’s lives with junk they neither need, nor in your case want, is beyond me. Different point entirely, I know.
- blhack 6y agoDoes anybody know of something like this but for outdoor use? If I had a relatively large (100 acre) or so property: is there a drone that I can buy that will be available whenever I want to check something out (without having to get up from my desk) then fly back to my roof to charge itself when its done? The "figure out what proximity alarm was tripped" part would be extra sauce. The main thing I'm looking for is return to home and charge yourself until I need you again.
- Waterluvian 6y agoI will pay good money for a drone that comes with a little computer with hard drives and the only thing it ever goes online to do is email me alerts. But nobody wants to build that because the tech world has mostly stopped thinking about how to solve problems.
- toss1 6y agoIf they really wanted to build a device to get burglars to depart rapidly or regret their choices, they should have armed it with a glitter cannon...
- fuzxi 6y agoIf I were burglarizing a home and a small, expensive drone started following me around...I'd just take the drone with me. But who would bother stealing a security camera?
- sloshnmosh 6y agoAlso be skeptical (and avoid) about websites that won’t function unless JavaScript is enabled.
- rossjudson 6y agoThis is a last gasp effort by the dash button crew. "How can we get more dash buttons pushed?" "Robots. And machine learning, of course." I hear these drones charge with free electricity when they land on dash buttons.
- wrkronmiller 6y agoHow is this drone going to get through a closed door?
- tsjq 6y agoThere's Amazon Key for that. :)
- Hasz 6y agoThe MTBF for a security camera has got to be ~100,000 hours or more. If this drone makes it 1000 hours, color me impressed. Presumably the next product will be a gattling gun you can deploy on errant babysitters, package thieves, and the ATF. Conveniently, the data appears to be streamed to me, myself, and anyone Jeff Bezos met at lunch. The panopticon is coming, but I didn't expect to pay $250 for the privilege.
- shrimpx 6y agoIsolated example: I have an IoT device, and based on my interactions with support and engineering, the company providing this product is extremely clueless as to my device’s state. Let alone building and monetizing sophisticated profiles of my personality.
- jb775 6y agoThe telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover...he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment.
- dmje 6y agoBrit here, once again failing to understand this complete obsession with filling your houses (and lives!) with cameras at all let alone with useless flying ones?? From this side of the pond it just looks absolutely insane, full of paranoia and fear. I know there's a country there full of gun totin' lunatics in many places, but I just don't get it. This is less criticism, btw, and more social commentary. Explain for me how it got so insane?!
- bogbrother 6y ago> Brit here, once again failing to understand this complete obsession with filling your houses (and lives!) with cameras at all let alone with useless flying ones?? Is that because you guys prefer your cameras outside? Brits love CCTV and the watchful eye of big brother
- dmje 6y agoPoint taken but in defence I believe they're almost all state and not private, plus distribution is fairly much exclusive to cities. And yeh, outdoors.
- ziml77 6y agoI'm not sure it's typical to have cameras all over one's house. Maybe at the entrances or just one to watch for porch pirates, but I have no reason to believe they're common indoors. In fact, that seems to be a reason to have a drone like this. You get to add an indoor camera that's difficult to be used for spying since it has to visibly and audibly move off the dock (it could be moved while the person isn't home, but if they spot it, they'll know something is up)
- dmje 6y agoImpression here is that all US homes have interior alarms and cameras - interesting if that isn't the case! I'm also slightly unclear why. I mean, you look at your phone and see some guy wandering around your house - how does that actually help? If you're in the house you st your pants and hide under the bed or worse case grab your gun and go get shot. If you're out, you phone the police which is what a good intruder alarm would do anyway. Seems really odd to me. Oh, plus the thoughts in the article, namely "buy a couple of cheap cameras instead" if you really want this stuff in your life.
- wojciii 6y agoOne problem: doors.
- chillly 6y agoIf the rooms in your house have doors and those doors are closed as they should be to slow the spread of a fire, how will the drone work?
- slim 6y agoI'll wait for the chinese copy for half the price and not connected to any cloud. I'm thankful to the chinese for enforcing free market economy
- andrepd 6y ago"Be skeptical of a flying camera in your house whose software you don't control" should be pretty common sense advice, yet here we are, people happily wiretap their own homes with "smart speakers" and "smart security cameras" for the slightest of conveniences.
- tyingq 6y agoI'd mostly be worried about Ring sharing video with 3rd parties, law enforcement, etc.
- nso95 6y agoWhy would you even want a security camera IN your house? Just get outdoor cameras and point them toward possible entry points.