Amazon Patents 'Surveillance As a Service' Tech For Its Delivery Drones (theverge.com) 47
Amazon's delivery drones may also be used to offer "surveillance as a service." According to The Verge, "Amazon was recently granted a patent that outlines how its UAVs could keep an eye on customers' property between deliveries while supposedly maintaining their privacy." From the report: The patent was originally filed in June 2015 and became public earlier this month. It describes how the company's drones could be hired to look out for open garage doors, broken windows, graffiti, or even a fire, before alerting the owner of the property. The patent was originally filed in June 2015 and became public earlier this month. It describes how the company's drones could be hired to look out for open garage doors, broken windows, graffiti, or even a fire, before alerting the owner of the property.
Drones are DANGEROUS. (Score:2)
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So is a rifle. Drone meet rifle.
You're not going to be able to hit a drone with a rifle. You'll need to use a shotgun.
If the drone is flying low, and trying to harass you . . . use Dragon's Breath [wikipedia.org] ammunition.
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Dupe de dupe (Score:5, Funny)
The patent was originally filed in June 2015 and became public earlier this month. It describes how the company's drones could be hired to look out for open garage doors, broken windows, graffiti, or even a fire, before alerting the owner of the property.
The patent was originally filed in June 2015 and became public earlier this month. It describes how the company's drones could be hired to look out for open garage doors, broken windows, graffiti, or even a fire, before alerting the owner of the property.
Slashdot has streamlined dupes to include them both in a single post. I'm sure there's a patent in there somewhere.
Why does this qualify for a patent? (Score:4, Insightful)
I am not a lawyer, and I know no more about intellectual property issues than any other average literate person. I am aware of how modern digital technologies and software have challenged these issues. So, this is nothing new in the perspective of the past 30 years. But - - -
Can somebody explain to me how this is eligible for a patent. You fly your drone which has a camera, and you get to look at whatever you can see. Deciding what to do with those views is logical enough, and doing surveillance on your house for good or evil purposes is perfectly obvious – and “non-obvious” as I understand it is a qualifier for a patent. What if Joe the pizza delivery guy pulls up to drop off the pie and does a 360 around your yard to make sure the doors are shut and the lights are on or off as the customer specified, recording the patrol with his iPhone or GoPro. Can Domino’s or the camera maker patent that? What makes the idea of a drone doing it any more eligible?
If you know something about the subject, some clarification would be appreciated.
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Mod up. Taxi drivers and neighbourhood watch, and police patrols, and private security patrols all work together. Drones and police helicopters already look for things out of place. Also the electricity company looking for illegal connections.
Cross out police helicopter and substitute drone gets a patent??!
Nice! (Score:2)
So if my house burns when I'm away in Rome they call _me_ instead of the fire department?
That will help. I can't even call 911 from there.
Show me what u got (Score:2)
"We have a problem."
"What's that?"
"We're trying to maintain our customers' privacy, but an unexpectedly large number of couples who signed up for security surveillance are being accidentally caught in flagrante delicto"
It's not... (Score:2)