[Hackupy-discuss] Aerial camera platform

[Eleanor Saitta]

On 2011.11.19 15.06, Ian Baker wrote:
> What I want is a solution that's cheap, easily replicable, requires
> little operator skill, holds the camera still, works in wind, runs for
> a long time, is easy to aim, is easy to move to another location,
> shields the camera operator from identification by police, and makes
> the camera itself hard to capture. If it meets these goals, it could
> be broadly scalable... Everybody could have one.
> 
> Last night I think I figured it out: a simple robot that can climb
> tapered metal poles, and carries a gimbaled camera platform. Clamp it
> to a lightpost, drive it to the top, recover when
> necessary/convenient.
> 
> Not quite as hard to catch as a helicopter, but also more stealth.
> Doesn't get quite as much altitude, but I don't think we need much.
> Doesn't have any of the issues that balloons do. Runs all day, and I
> bet it could be built for less money than the smartphone we strap to
> it, from flat-pack laser-cut parts and bits of r/c car, in an
> afternoon.

I like this a whole lot, and I think it's exactly the right approach,
for the right reasons.

Another variation on the same strategy would be a "shoes over the wire"
camera that you throw up.  Dead weight on one end, camera on the other.
 A solenoid releases the "laces" when you want it back.  Possibly the
two designs could be built with the same camera pod, so either carrier
could be deployed, depending on what's available.

E.

-- 
Ideas are my favorite toys.

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