Chinese residents are being kept inside their homes by 'dystopian' drones and robots as authorities enforce its strictest lockdown yet.
A video posted on Chinese social media platform Weibo shows a drone patrolling the skies around Shanghai flashing red and white lights.
Using a loudspeaker, it barks at residents: "Please comply with Covid restrictions. Control your soul's desire for freedom. Do not open the window or sing."
The drone was reportedly deployed after residents took to their balconies to sing in protest at the 'two-part' lockdown, which only lets one half of the city out at a time to get essentials and be tested.
Shanghai, China's largest city by population, is currently facing its harshest lockdown of the pandemic after cases of the virus spiked in March. Residents are unable to leave their homes to take the bins out and socialising is banned.
However, the use of the drones marks an intensification of the city's robo-lockdown enforcement, which is the first of its kind since the beginning of the pandemic.
One Weibo commenter said "This is futuristic totalitarianism unforeseen by any great mind of science fiction writers."
-
iPhone '5 click trick' saved my life says Brit snowboarder who fell 15ft down ice hole
Earlier this week, a video posted on Twitter showed a 'robot dog' quadruped armed with a loudspeaker barking orders at residents to stay in their homes, with no expense spared on the gaffer tape used to attach the speaker.
Robot dogs, aka 'quadrupeds', are growing increasingly sophisticated. Boston Dynamics' quadruped, Spot, is finding more and more uses.
Recently, Italian authorities revealed Spot is being deployed to the ruins of Pompeii to prevent tomb raiders from looting precious artefacts in crumbling buildings.
- Robots
- China
Source: Read Full Article