1.5 Blog Activity Setup and First Entry

This assignment is a requirement to summarize a news or journal article that highlights a sensor employed on an unmanned system.

S. Greene (2013), wrote an article for The Colorado Independent titled “Mesa County, Colo. A National Leader in Domestic Drone Use”. The article discusses Colorado’s use of police Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The Mesa County Sheriff’s Department flies the UAVs mounted with state of the art cameras, covering an area of 3,300 square miles (Greene, 2013). The county flies UAVs equipped with camera sensors and thermal imagining sensors to capture data used in police operations such as search and rescue operations, police chases, and crime scene reconstruction (Greene, 2013). As compared to manned helicopter operations, the UAVs outfitted with their sensors, save a significant amount of money.

One of the most notable concerns with police flying UAVs equipped with camera, and video sensors is the issue of privacy. The Mesa County Sheriff’s Department has had many calls from concerned citizens about the use of the UAVs for surveillance operations (Greene, 2013). The department has strived to ensure the public that they will not use the UAVs for any purpose that conflicts with the law or their standard operating procedures (Greene, 2013).

If it was not for the advanced sensor technology, there would be no practical use for UAVs in a police application. The high resolution cameras and thermal imaging sensors make it possible for the UAVs to capture detailed imagery in both day and night conditions.  The high resolution camera will allow smaller objects to be viewed at greater distances with more detail ("Thermal imagers," n.d). Thermal imaging sensors detect infrared energy emitted, transmitted, or reflected off of objects and convert that energy into a viewable display ("Thermal imagers," n.d). In addition to using thermal imaging in law enforcement applications, thermal imaging is used by many other professionals such as firefighters to see through smoke, and powerline maintenance technicians to detect hot spots ("Top uses and applications of thermal imaging cameras - Quick tips #345 - Grainger Industrial Supply," n.d.). Mesa County also hopes to use their two UAVs in the future to help determine the volume of a local landfill, and track wildfires (Greene, 2013).

References:

Greene, S. (2013, June 6). Colorado’s Mesa County a National leader in domestic drone use | The Colorado Independent. Retrieved from http://www.coloradoindependent.com/127870/colorados-mesa-county-a-national-leader-in-domestic-drone-use

Thermal imagers. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.omega.com/prodinfo/thermal_imagers.html

Top uses and applications of thermal imaging cameras - Quick tips #345 - Grainger Industrial Supply. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.grainger.com/content/qt-thermal-imaging-applications-uses-features-345