Deconstructing the FPSRussia video
So it has come to my attention that 4 days ago, a video appeared on YouTube, on the FPSRussia account. Apparently his channel is known for testing and demonstrating a few gadgets. However this one received over 5.5 million views at the time of this writing.
Basically the guy demonstrates a somewhat military device. It’s a quadrotor (it’s like a helicopter with four blades instead of one), that has a small machine gun attached to the bottom of the hull. In the course of the video, he demonstrates its abilities and the fact that it is remote controlled with some kind of tablet.
First, here’s the video:
Now there are a few things I like to point out. First of all there has been a discussion about whether or not this is CG or some kind of Ray Tracing. Let me tell you, now that I’m working with all sorts of 3D approaches, Ray tracing like this is possible – but requires a shitload of processing power (would take forever to render), Shadow-Mapping at this level and detail does not exist but could be achieved through Ray-Tracing (you see the issue, yes?).
Okay so the first bit I think is a bit strange is what I believe to be the camera on the unit. It could be some sort of filter, but the camera images (I’ll come to that in a moment) wouldn’t point in that direction.
Next bit is the device through which the man is apparently controlling the drone. He claims it’s a tablet “that can kill you”. Now if the drone is real, than that’s true. However, let’s take a closer look at it.
While the tablet does not really have any resemblance to known tablets in the market, it has similar characteristics. It is approximately 10 inch in size, and appears to capable of at least single touch. However you would agree that the display looks as if it comes out of an action movie, yes?
Now the next bit is the actual camera transmission. There are times when he demonstrates the abilities of the device and you can see what the device actually sees. However the weird bit is the look itself. This is the quality of the camera.
Somehow, I think that this quality does not match the screen on the tablet we have seen just now. I also wonder about how this cam transmits in 720p – and yet have such a bad quality. The device is at no time further away than maybe 15 meters. At this close range you have little to no quality loss when transmitting through the air.
At some points I find it weird that things explode where they shouldn’t be. While you can see the gun doing something and the drone having some recoil, the point where the “boom” happens is not where it should be. This may suggest that pyrotechnics were prepared.
The one last thing is the concluding part of the video. The man steers the device into the back window of a car, and ultimately blows it up. He claims the drone (a prototype I might add!) is equipped with a sef destruct sequence, in case shit hits the fan. He claims the self-destruct to have a blast radius of 15 feet. That’s about 4-5 meters.
So what’s left to say? I think it’s hard to discredit the footage. It seems to be genuine with no alterations. However, I do believe the whole thing to be staged. Why would someone 1) be given such a prototype device, and 2) be allowed to blow it up?
I’m not saying anything. I’m not implying anything. I’m just a bit of a paranoid person, and these are my thoughts on it.
Back to coding Orion’s Gate!
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