Drones: The Brilliant, the Bad and the Beautiful.

• Author: Acikgoz, Ali

Drones: The Brilliant, the Bad and the Beautiful

By Andy Miah

Emerald Publishing, 2020, 179 pages, $23.99, ISBN: 9781838679880

Drones have gained popularity thanks to emerging technology in recent years. Smaller in size than unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and easy to use, drones are used in the military the media, and agriculture. However, while drone technology benefits humanity in many ways, it has a negative side and requires many regulations to ensure its safe usage. In Drones: The Brilliant, the Bad and the Beautiful, Andy Miah, from the University of Salford, discusses the pros and cons of emerging drone technology while examining drones from an artistic aesthetics and creative perspective.

In the first chapter, Miah examines how drones have expanded into an immense consumer market in a very short period as one of the most popular, defining technologies of the 21st century. He provides readers with a historical perspective and explains the development stages of drones through a variety of examples. The book analyzes drone design, technological development, the approaches of private companies, and the ways in which drones add economic value (p. 31). The development of battery-control systems, 3D-modeling software, and refined camera technologies have made drones affordable for amateur electronic consumers, which represent a growing market (pp. 31-32). Miah explains the increase in drone popularity through the relations of organizations such as Facebook, Amazon, Google, and Apple with drone manufacturers such as Da-Jiang Innovations (DJI) and Phantom, drawing attention to what impact these relationships can have on the moral values of society (p. 50).

In the following chapter, the author discusses the regulation of drones. In this section, Miah states that institutions such as the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) have set rules for drones since the early 2000s. He explores the difficulties of imposing legal regulations on drone use and the main tendency of these regulations. He asks, "Why should there be legal regulation for drones?" and addresses issues of both personal privacy and the weaponization of emerging drone technology through "the potential for camera-enabled drones to violate legal or moral expectations and personal privacy" (p. 65). Considering the lack of a definite legal framework, he expresses the inadequacy of current legislation in this regard. Finally, Miah cites the culture clash in camera technology as...