Citing concerns over surveillance, safety and potential trauma to the public, a majority of Los Angeles County Sheriff Civilian Oversight commissioners Thursday expressed that they want Sheriff Jim McDonnell to stop flying a drone used in law enforcement operations. The aircraft was unveiled by the Sheriff's Department in January and has been deployed four times, mostly in search-and-rescue missions. The department has said the 20-inch-long unmanned aircraft system, which cost $10,000, would strictly be used in high-risk tactical operations -- such as fires, bomb detection and hostage situations -- and not for surveillance. But activists have warned of possible "mission creep," saying they're worried the drone could be used for random spying on residents and could one day be armed or be deployed as a weapon itself. In 2012, the Sheriff's Department used a plane to secretly shoot video footage of the streets of Compton in order to catch criminals.

Earlier this year, Sling released its multi-camera video production device SlingStudio that made it a heck of alot easier to juggle multiple feeds for live or edited video. Today the company announced that the platform will now be compatible with DJI drone systems, including models from the Phantom, Inspire and Matrice series. "SlingStudio simplifies production for videographers looking to film with multiple drones, or drones in combination with ground cameras," said Dish CTO Vivek Khemka in a statement, "Its wireless, drone friendly setup allows drone pilots to capture footage without being limited by cords or cumbersome film equipment." The drones' remote controllers can plug into SlingStudio's HDMI port or they can connect to the device wirelessly with Sling's CameraLink wireless adapter. Video feeds stream through the drones' controllers and are then routed to the SlingStudio hub.

Drones capable of carrying explosives to countries thousands of miles away could be available in just five years, according to an expert. These terror drones could fly from Africa to the US in just over a day, a top US defence adviser told the Pentagon. Many companies are chasing a new commercial market and pushing this technology forward which means in the next few years they could become widely available. The Greased Lightening drone (pictured) can fold eight out of its ten propellers down to reach optimum efficiency. A company called Advanced Aircraft Company has created a drone called Greased Lightening which combines the best bits of drone and aeroplane design.

IF DRONES COULD eat other drones, the SparrowHawk would sit somewhere near the top of the flying-robot foodchain. Click here to watch the video.

If drones could eat other drones, the SparrowHawk would sit somewhere near the top of the flying-robot foodchain. On a baking stretch of 110-degree dust an hour west of Phoenix, the six-rotored arachnoid rises with a menacing buzz, like a swarm of several dozen hornets' nests. Then the 14-pound, hexagonal drone lurches forward, towards its prey, a 3D Robotics quadcopter that its five-and-a-half-foot armspan dwarfs. The two drones perform a brief, mid-air dance before the SparrowHawk overtakes the quadcopter, and pulls it into a rectangular net that hangs beneath its body, tangling the smaller drone's rotors. The SparrowHawk then lowers to the ground, the captured quadcopter still twitching in its web.

In June 2016, Antoine Balaresque, the cofounder and CEO of the hot new startup Lily Robotics, stood before a room of business students at Berkeley's Haas School of Business, ready to reveal the PowerPoint slides that had made him an instant startup celebrity. Wearing the ubiquitous Silicon Valley uniform of a T-shirt and jeans, he appeared slightly bashful, with unruly hair and a boyish face still round in the cheeks. He seemed self-conscious about being feted by the room of business school students. Jessica Pishko is a San Francisco-based journalist who writes frequently about incarceration and social justice issues. Sign up to get Backchannel's weekly newsletter. The presentation began like most of Balaresque's talks, with the Lily Drone promotional video: A slick film showed the drone swooping through the air, capturing footage of users engaged in a series of outdoor adventures. When the video finished, Balaresque began to recount the origin story of his "flying camera." It started in 2013, with a family trip to Yosemite National Park, during which Balaresque's mother took a group photo.

DJI, a premier drone-maker, is facing reports that its most consumer-friendly aircraft is randomly plunging from the sky, a cause for concern over safety issues.

The U.S. Naval Research Lab has been working on its CICADA (Close-In Covert Autonomous Disposable Aircraft) drones since at least 2011. The tiny drones are designed to be carried aloft by other aircraft and dropped, whereupon they'll use GPS and little fins to glide to within 15 feet of their destination. They can carry a small sensor payload, and they're designed to be cheap enough that you can use a whole bunch of them all at once. At the Sea Air Space Expo back in April, we checked out the latest MK5 CICADA prototypes, along with a new delivery system that'll launch 32 of them out of a standardized sonobuoy tube all at once. The CICADA drones themselves consist mostly of a printed circuit board, which makes up the wings and also contains a custom autopilot system that can recover from the crazy tumbling that you can see when the CICADAs are initially deployed. A 3D-printed fuselage minimizes the amount of hands-on assembly time required, and the general idea is that eventually, these things will be created and assembled entirely by robots.

Ever wanted to try your hands on a drone but backed off because of the price tag? We feel the pain too. Although drones are evolving with their technology, the pricing often seems to be too high-budget for the mainstream audience. However, being the product hunters of the industry, we decided to look around for drones that are pocket-friendly and high-quality at the same time. There are 9 drones we've found that you can get within a budget of $150 only.

A stunning drone-shot video shows a great white shark swimming off a Southern California beach. The drone footage was shot by Tyler Martindale, reports KEYT News Channel 3. Martindale says that the huge predator was about 656 feet south of Santa Claus Beach in Carpinteria, Santa Barbara County. The video, which was shot on Saturday morning, clearly shows the shark swimming back and forth. Martindale said that the shark was about 10 feet long. While the great white was far away, it was still close enough to swim closer to the shore, according to Martindale.