A video on YouTube shows images captured by the so-called RoboKopter.

A group of citizen journalists in Moscow used a similar drone camera to record protests during Russian parliamentary elections.

And Professor Waite noted a recent environmental case in the United States captured by someone flying his remote-controlled airplane.

MATT WAITE: "He spotted a meat packing plant that was polluting a nearby creek that ran into a nearby river. He had images of a river of blood flowing out of this meat packing plant, which was against the law. And environmental regulatory authorities were alerted to it."

Andrew Sniderman is a co-founder of the Genocide Intervention Network. He wrote recently in the New York Times that drones could be used to collect important information in conflict areas, like Syria.

Professor Waite also imagines many other uses for drones.

MATT WAITE: "I thought of every hurricane, and tornado and fire and every kind of mass disaster that I ever covered as a journalist and thought, oh wow, that would be amazing to have as a tool."

Drone use in the United States is now rare because of federal restrictions on airspace. However, Congress just passed a bill designed to ease those restrictions by twenty fifteen.

And that's the VOA Special English Technology Report, written by Arick Simms. I'm Steve Ember.