Hacker puts a video cam on an RC truck and saves the lives of 6 soldiers

The funny thing is that if the DoD contracted out to build these, they would end up costing over $1 million each. There are a lot of unique opportunities for startups that are willing to use off the shelf technology and package it in unique ways. Provided, of course, you don't have any ethical qualms about selling technology that might be used for good or evil.

Re: Hacker puts a video cam on an RC truck and saves the lives of 6 soldiers

#6

Post by illumin8 » Fri, Aug 05, 2011, 3:52 PM UTC

epochwolf wrote: post #2

It's a good story but I really, really hate auto playing videos. Edit: "video ads" -> "videos" I don't like either one.

I have Flashblock and I didn't see any ads.

Re: Hacker puts a video cam on an RC truck and saves the lives of 6 soldiers

#7

Post by DavidAdams » Fri, Aug 05, 2011, 3:54 PM UTC

epochwolf wrote: post #2

It's a good story but I really, really hate auto playing videos. Edit: "video ads" -> "videos" I don't like either one.

I thought the same thing, but if you wait around, you'll see that the ad is a pre-roll to a TV news story about the Afghanistan story. So it's not really an auto-playing ad, it's an auto-playing news video with an ad in the front. Still annoying.

Re: Hacker puts a video cam on an RC truck and saves the lives of 6 soldiers

#8

Post by quux » Fri, Aug 05, 2011, 3:54 PM UTC

illumin8 wrote: post #5

The funny thing is that if the DoD contracted out to build these, they would end up costing over $1 million each. There are a lot of unique opportunities for startups that are willing to use off the shelf technology and package it in unique ways. Provided, of course, you don't have any ethical qualms about selling technology that might be used for good or evil.

Isn't that true of any technology?

Re: Hacker puts a video cam on an RC truck and saves the lives of 6 soldiers

#9

Post by Iv » Fri, Aug 05, 2011, 3:56 PM UTC

illumin8 wrote: post #5

The funny thing is that if the DoD contracted out to build these, they would end up costing over $1 million each. There are a lot of unique opportunities for startups that are willing to use off the shelf technology and package it in unique ways. Provided, of course, you don't have any ethical qualms about selling technology that might be used for good or evil.

Actually, if you don't sell it for at least 1M$, you won't get any contract, it doesn't look serious enough. Terrestrial drones were being done during WWII, Russians were remote-controlling full-sized tanks in the 40s, these techs should be obvious by now.

I have been working for a defense project about instrumenting some armored vehicles with video cameras and monitors. The project was more than 10 years old when I arrived in it. I couldn't help but thinking "bring the prototype to any hackerspace and pay 20k of salary for two weeks of dev and you'll be done."

Re: Hacker puts a video cam on an RC truck and saves the lives of 6 soldiers

#10

Post by camworld » Fri, Aug 05, 2011, 3:57 PM UTC

I have shared this story with some of the Army leaders I work with.