A real high flyer - "your eye in the sky"

Recently (last month) the police in The Netherlands introduced the latest addition to their crime fighting arsenal against illegal marijuana growers: the canna chopper. The canna chopper is a remote controlled mini helicopter loaded with equipment to enable detection of illegal marijuana growing operations. The chopper is loaded with a thermal imaging camera and a regular camera. It also has the so dubbed 'canna sniffer', an odor-detecting device that can 'smell' the marijuana.

Here's a short clip showcasing the canna chopper.



While in the clip it is reported they already made their first arrests thanks to the chopper, it sounds a bit like propaganda to me. Also claims of it being able to fly for 8 hours seem greatly exaggerated. That aside, there seems to be an issue with regards to privacy since they need to fly these things over homes, only a very small percentage of which will be used for growing weed. Though I'm not aware as of yet of any complaints or legal actions taken against the use of the RC helicopter from the general public.

Here's a more humorous report on the chopper and this time it is in English



This example is not the only of it's kind in England they have the Microdrone. (article here)

And a clip of the Microdrone

The Microdrone is developed by Microdrones GmbH from Germany.

It is used in many different applications: Aerial photography, Archeology, Surveillance, Plant inspection, Fire and Rescue service, Border control, Police, Special forces, Army.

With future products we will introduce even much more sophisticated control- and communication technologies.

Our company name together with our slogan "your eye in the sky" is self-explanatory and directly meets our product purpose.

One of our future aims will be the expansion of our worldwide reseller network and production locations. This demonstrates our commitment to the highest quality products and a reliable service.

We are a completely independent company.

"See you..."

(Taken from their website.)

One of their projects listed on their site is project Airshield.

AirShield (Airborne Remote Sensing for Hazard Inspection by Network-Enabled Lightweight Drones) is a BMBF research project on the field for the civilian safety research to the protection of crucial infrastructures and citizens. The project is part of the program "Research for the civilian safety" in the field of "Integrated protection system for rescue and security forces".

You can read more on project Airshield here. The Microdrones website also has several videos available.

His Royal Highness The Duke of Kent with a microdrone in hand



West Midlands Fire Service at its best. One of the most modern fire brigade impresses his Royal Highness, The Duke of Kent, with their highly specialized microdrones system. -Source

Let's take another look at Microdrones GmbH's slogan "your eye in the sky".
'Eye in the sky' is a novel written in 1957 by Philip K. Dick.


It is also the title of an album and a song by Alan Parsons Project. The cover of the album is below.


Most will recognize that as a depiction of the eye of Horus, the Egyptian sky/solar deity.

Eye In The Sky is the second song on the album, it is preceded by the instrumental track Sirius and followed by Children of the moon.
(The Egyptians of course attached great importance to the sun, the moon and also the star Sirius. I will likely delve more into this at a later date, I don't want to derail the post too much.)

As coincidence would have it one of Microdrones' partners in the Airshield project is the University of Siegen which also uses the Eye of Horus as it's logo.

Eye In The Sky is also term used for security cameras like this one
There is also a 2007 film by the same name which plot revolves around the use of such surveillance cameras.

A wikipedia article has this to report on the song:

The song is in part a reference to George Orwell's classic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, regarding a possible future in which individual privacy is virtually non-existent due to the ever-watching eye of Big Brother. In the novel, citizens are constantly monitored by satellites and hidden video recording equipment.

It has also been noted by Eric Woolfson, the songwriter and vocalist of this song, spent a lot of time in casinos and in commercial districts, fascinated by the hidden security cameras that monitor gamblers and shoppers, hence the theme of the song.

Alan Parsons worked with Pink Floyd as a sound engineer for their album Dark Side of the Moon.
Pink Floyds' most succesful album with it's wellknown artwork, the pyramid/prism, five years later in 1978 the Alan Parsons Project released an album titled Pyramid.


The Dark Side of the Moon album comes with it's very own synchromystic story:

Dark Side of the Rainbow (also known as Dark Side of Oz or The Wizard of Floyd) refers to the pairing of the 1973 Pink Floyd music album The Dark Side of the Moon with the visual portion of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. This produces moments where the film and the album appear to correspond with each other. The title of the music video-like experience comes from a combination of the album title and the film's song "Over the Rainbow". It is also a reference to the rainbow from a prism design on the cover of the Pink Floyd album. Band members and others involved in making of the album state that any relationship between the two works of art is merely a coincidence.

You can read more about Dark Side of the Rainbow here.

If you want to listen to Sirius and Eye in the sky :



The song Sirius has been used among other things, as the introduction song for the former NBA player Michael Jordan.

His jersey number was 23 while playing for the Chicago Bulls and later the Washington Wizards (of Oz?), the number has been retired after MJ/Air Jordan/His Royal Airness left the NBA.

There is a great deal of time to be wasted (but it can be entertaining) with following the number 23 if you are so inclined. If you are unfamiliar with it any search engine will surely get you on your way, and with that I'll wrap up this post.