What I Learned While Being Stalked by a Drone

I used the information that I learned in this experiment in the plot for COLD RED, available in the Love Under Fire Collection, which was developed to support the work of PETS FOR VETS link at the top right of this blog site.



Recently, I participated in an experiment being conducted by a University of Virginia professor who dedicates his research to finding missing persons.

This research might help you develop a plot around a search for your bad guy or your missing and vulnerable character.

In the initial research conducted last year, I sat in front of a computer screen and tried to determine where missing persons were in the woods. People were dispersed in three sets:

• camouflage - as in hunting wear
• high visibility wear as in white Tyvek suits
• blue

Blue, I have found to be an easier colour to find when I'm out on a search as it stands out as a contrast to natural colors. Blue is rare in nature, where blaze oranges and yellows can blend in with leaves especially during the fall hunting season. 

Tree foliage was a confounding factor to finding the individuals.

During this computer search simulation, I was able to find all of the blue people, and all of the high-vis people. I could not with certainty find any of the people in camo-wear. I could, however, find some places where I thought they might be, where I might send in a dog team to check it out. My eyes, however, were trained in arts and art history studies. My experience was not true for others who didn't have their sight trained for nuance. This should tell you that if you want your searcher to be successful, they should have something in their background that provides them with visual skill sets. And if you don't want them to be successful you could give them a dirty pair of glasses. :) 

From here, the next step was to see whether using FLIR - Forward Looking Infrared Radiometer-- was helpful. For more about this technology go HERE to this blog post on thermal and night vision tracking.

In the FLIR drone experiment:
A group of volunteers were positioned in the woods at specific GPS coordinates. We were all connected via walkie talkies, and we all wore body sensors to understand the impact of the ambient temperature and body temperature on the search.

We started out in the very early morning on a very cold day when our body temperatures were quite distinct from the morning temperature of 50 degrees. The drones flew a search path above us with the FLIR. We went through different configurations where the drone looked for us while we were in camouflage or high-vis Tyvek. In each of these outfits we were told to either stand and wave our arms, lie flat, or ball up.

*Lying flat in Tyvek was the MOST visible.
*Balling up in camouflage was the LEAST visible.

The noise made by the drones was minimal. There was a buzzing that I was listening for. Had I not been given a heads up it was heading my way, I might have missed it in the sounds of wind and fauna. The drone never flew directly over my head.

I mention this because your character may never know the drone is there and therefore might not be able to strike a pose making them more visible like lying out in the open and making "snow angels" with their limbs.

As the day continued, and the temperatures rose, the experiment continued until the ambient temperature and our body temperatures were almost equivalent. This meant that the FLIR didn't have the as stark a contrast of temperatures to find. Looking at night with the lower temperatures might make the characters who are searching more effective.

FLIR technology is heavy, which sucked at the drone battery life. The drone had to go back for a new battery frequently. Once, the drone didn't have the juice to make it all the way back to base. It crashed in the woods. 

Your search team will need a bunch of drones to cover the space required as well as to be available for malfunctions and crashes.
Your search team will also need a way to juice up a bank of batteries, so they can be changed up, and the drone sent back out into the field. 

Several characters will be needed to run base:

• The drone operator
• The manager who is working on the map grid
• The person who is searching the screen
• The person who is maintaining the flying ability of the drones
• Probably a runner who does all the little jobs, like making sure the team is eating, drinking water, safe, taking phone calls, taking notes.

Here are some takeaways:

• If your character is hypothermic they will be harder to see.
• If the ambient temperature is close to body temperature, they will be harder to see.
• If they have less body surface (in a ball, small individual) they will be harder to see.
• You can extrapolate out that summer with tree foliage and high temperatures will create problems in finding your character. But you might have a longer window to find them alive if they have some water with them.
• Winter with the bare limbs and low temperatures makes things easier IF you get the searchers out there before your character becomes hypothermic. Chances of finding them alive have a shorter window, unless they have a skill set for starting a fire and building a shelter. 
• Starting a fire will help searchers find them quickly. 
• Building a shelter that is thick enough with debris to do its job will thwart a search as it masks body temperature and the drone will see that area as forest floor.

So in conclusion, when writing your plot consider:

• Skills sets of the lost person/or person trying to hide
• Equipment of the missing person
• Clothing of missing person
• Ambient temperature
• Foliage
• Speed of getting searchers on site
• Quality and number of their drone and the possibility of FLIR equipment.
• Searcher skills

Oh, and wild animals. Don't forget there are wild animals. 
"Beta to Command, there's a bear in my area, please advise."
"Command to Beta, move any food you have with you to a distance."

LOL

Good luck with your writing!
I bring you these articles to help you. 
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Thank you in advance for your support.
Fiona