aeroSee and drone journalismJohn MillsResearcher

@_johnmills

MEDIA INNOVATION STUDIO• We are an international research centre based in the School of Journalism and Media at

the University of Central Lancashire

• Our focus is on exploring new technologies and their relationship with individuals and communities

• We research, teach and support commercial activities and engage in a range of knowledge transfer activities.

aeroSee• Seeks to innovate both

engineered drones, control software and explore a range of UAV uses

• Unites Media Innovation Studio with School of Computing, Engineering and Physical Sciences and e-Migs: a private sector drone manufacturer

• Explore policy issues and international exploitation of drone technology

Background: Drones and Journalism

• Potential technological “tipping” point

– UAVs are increasingly affordable and offer cost savings over traditional aerial capture methods

– Technology is also focussing around UX and mass market penetration

– Vibrant maker community exploring UAV opportunities

– Lower costs create potential to be used by a large range of publishers and journalistic organisations

– Provide high definition cameras mounted directly onto drones

– Smaller size provides increased opportunity to access a range of locations both before they become airborne and afterwards

– Digital connectivity providing the potential for direct streaming to news industry

Industry beginning to recognise the potential…

UAVs: a growing ‘citizen community’

Regulation and ethics

• Civil aviation authority regulates of UAVs:

• Operator must retain a direct line of sight to drone

• Must not fly over or within 30 meters of an individual

• Must not fly over or within 150 meters of a congested area

• Must not fly over or within 150 meters of a congregation of a 1000 people or more

• Must not fly higher than 400 feet

• Ethical considerations also important: How do members of the public feel about airborne surveillance and the associated risks with overflying of unmanned vehicles?

aeroSee: the concept

• Key question: Can search and rescue services benefit from crowd-sourced image analysis?

• Promote drones for civic and civil uses

• Prompt debate around these uses, and influence policy

• Promote interdisciplinary digital development and working within an academic institution

Digital potential: the power of the crowd

Creation of search agents• Can the crowd and interested parties to and

tag missing individuals

• Would the search and rescue voluntary community and UAV community combine as part of a single project?

• Could basic analysis of tags assist in locating a missing walker?

• Could our ‘search agents’ be more effective than a single search and rescue team?

The first trial

Image data UAV

Internet

UCLANServers

Crowd sourcedImagery analysis

Crowd sourced imagery analysis

by ‘Search Agents’

Data Processing

Search Locations

Rescue Team Dispatched directly to sightings

INNOVATIVE THINKINGFOR THE REAL WORLD

Mountain RescueControl Centre

UAV Ground Station

Search Agents

• Access UAV and journalism community

• Co-creation of out• Market • Crowdfunding

Key findings

• 1000 ‘search agents’ registered

• 4765 tags placed on images

• Image set searched 166 times

• 105 on the missing person image

• Missing person found within 69 seconds

Potential and next stages

• To explore other search and rescue opportunities in the UK

• To explore other ‘public good’ applications and conduct further case studies

• To continue to examine how to embed digital drones into news organisations

• To analyse and influence policy and regulation

• To continue to build our crowd of users and engaged ‘search agents’

Thank you

www.aerosee.org