Unlike drone operations in Delhi and Mumbai, some drones deployed in Amritsar as part of keeping an eye out on lockdown violators were far more sophisticated: They were equipped with an AI-based onboard software capable of detecting humans from around 400 feet away, along with the distance between two people, and could send the police the GPS coordinates of a person violating the lockdown norms. The drones were supplied to the police in Amritsar by a company called Skylark Labs, which has offices in Hyderabad, Amritsar and San Francisco, its CEO Amarjot Singh told MediaNama. The company started the surveillance for the police in about 4-5 areas in Amritsar in the middle of April, and did it for a couple of weeks, Singh said. 2 drones made by DJI (which has openly criticised India's drone regulations) were used. The Times of India had first reported this. “Police forces around the country used drones to assist in enforcing the lockdown and monitor areas, but all of that was essentially manual monitoring of live feeds. That way you can maybe fly many drones, but people will have to monitor all the feed manually,” Singh said. Skylark Labs’ drones on the other hand are equipped with an AI based system which can alert the police in case of any lockdown violations without someone having the monitor a live feed all the time, he claimed. He also told us that the operators flying drones for the police were Skylark Labs' employees, and that there…
