Here's a round-up of the week's top drone news, designed to capture the military, commercial, non-profit, and recreational applications of unmanned aircraft.
Targets, Tracked
Metadata+ is a smartphone app that alerts users to the time and location of drone strikes conducted by the United States. For each strike, it displays a brief sentence about the victims ("Tariq, 16, and Wahid, 12, were driving to pick up their aunt. A drone ended their journey.") and adds a pin to a drone strike map. The app's name comes from the peripheral information generated by communication, such as the location of a cell phone call, or the IP address for sending an email. According to a report published Monday by The Intercept, metadata is also the key way targets for drone strikes are detected.
Spelunking in Corvette Cavern
On Wednesday, a 40-foot-wide, 30-foot-deep sinkhole opened up at the National Corvette Museum in Kentucky. Eight Corvettes fell into the hole. To explore the pit, the University of Western Kentucky's engineering department wisely sent in a drone instead of a human. The Wall Street Journal obtained the video, which nicely skirts FAA rules against commercial use of drone photography. In the video, the drone's rotors are audible, and two of its legs can be seen. Also visible: a giant, scary sinkhole and a bunch of fancy cars.
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