Anti Graffitti Drones to catch artists!
Deutsche Bahn, a German train operator is turning to drones to catch graffitists leaving their mark on its trains
Deutsche Bahn has, AFPreports, had problems with graffiti getting onto its trains when they're parked in the company's depots. The cost of cleaning it up last year reached €7.6m (£6.5m), so the relatively small investment in testing quadcopters at a cost of €60,000 (£31,000) each seems like a good investment.
They'll fly roughly 150m above Deutsche Bahn's depots at night, "in problem areas, where taggers are most active," an unnamed spokesperson told AFP. Infrared images gathered by the drones could be used as evidence to back up a case against anyone caught and prosecuted for vandalising a train.
However, Deutsche Bahn will have to tread carefully. There are extremely strict laws in place in Germany governing the use of surveillance like this, and the company's operators will need to make sure that the drones only gather images of Deutsche Bahn's property.
Public opinion of surveillance is also extremely hostile, and the legal system reflects that. When Google rolled out Street View in the country, it was made to let people opt-out of having their homes shown on the service. Google was also recently fined €145,000 (£124,000) for collecting public data -- including emails, photographs and personal passwords -- from unencrypted Wi-Fi networks with its Street View cars, a fine that constituted one of the largest in German history.
Germany is also the nation ofCamover, the annual anti-surveillance competition where the winner is the player who disables the greatest number of CCTV cameras in the most inventive ways possible.
Article Source: Wired magazine
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