"All-seeing eye" drone being developed by Russia

All-seeing eye

A drone fitted with a tech-forward, all-seeing eye is being developed by United Instrument Manufacturing Corporation (UIMC), a subsidiary of Russian state corporation Rostec. UIMC builds technological equipment for the military. The drone can see beyond the electromagnetic spectrum of the human eye, enabling it to detect both camouflaged and hidden military equipment. The unmanned aerial vehicle will also be able to differentiate between natural and artificial objects. To do this, the drone will take multiple pictures that consist of pixels with a unique spectrum that is invisible to the human eye. It will also be autonomous, relying on a database of the hyperspectral characteristics of a variety of materials. "The technology we created can process hyperspectral data streams, leading to the creation of an 'all-seeing eye' that allows our drones to look beyond the usual boundaries of the human eye's electromagnetic spectrum," explains Sergey Skokov, deputy CEO of UIMC.

Utilitarian uses

Aside from the obvious military advantage of a drone that can see through almost anything, its optical electric equipment can be used for aerial surveillance and monitoring of the Earth's surface. It can collect digital information about its surroundings and analyze the data to assess for the presence of fuel spills, soil contamination, chemical traces and other similar pollutants in a particular area.