Drone Privacy Study Earns NYS Revitalization Initiative Grant Project Explores UAS Use in Building Energy Audits
D CHESKY_W/iSTOCKPHOTO BY GETTY IMAGES
rone operation research involving privacy issues being conducted by an iSchool assistant professor in collaboration with faculty at two other Syracuse University schools won New York State and Syracuse University Office of Research funding in 2017. Yang Wang, along with Tarek Rakha, assistant professor from the School of Architecture and Senem Velipasalar, associate professor from the College of Engineering and Computer Science, were awarded $43,162 to explore the use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in energy audits of buildings. The project is titled, “Heat Mapping Drones: Building Envelope Energy Performance and Privacy Diagnostics Using Unmanned Aerial Systems.” It was one of six drone-study projects across the University to receive funds from the initial phase of New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Upstate Revitalization Initiative, with additional monies awarded from the Syracuse University Office of Research. The study involved aspects of promoting safe and secure unmanned systems operating in urban areas, including regions with closely spaced highrise buildings. To conduct the research, the team employed a UAS platform equipped with thermal
cameras designed to conduct rapid building envelope performance diagnostics and aerial assessment mapping of building energy. The purpose of the mapping was to spot areas of heat loss in buildings in order to improve the design of energy-saving systems and contribute to overall building performance. Traditionally, says Wang, such energy audits have been conducted by human inspectors and sometimes would be time consuming and error prone. Substituting drones for the same work involves privacy concerns, since UAS-mounted cameras have the ability to capture images of and identify humans. Wang’s research component involved conducting a privacy impact assessment of the UAS system used in the project and work toward finding ways to enhance its privacy awareness and protection. His past research efforts have been related to privacy issues or unmanned aerial systems in general, and so the project represented “an exciting application of UAS technology to the energy and sustainability domain,” he says. Wang and his associates at Syracuse University and in the iSchool’s SALT (Social Computing Systems Lab) have published three research papers from their involvement in drone and privacy studies: l “Flying Eyes and Hidden Controllers: A Qualitative Study of People’s Privacy Perceptions of Civilian Drones in the U.S.,” published in proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies l “Free to Fly in Public Spaces: Drone Controllers Privacy Perceptions and Practices,” published in the proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computer Systems (CHI 2017) l “Mechanisms for Drones: Perceptions of Drone Controllers and Bystanders,” published in proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computer Systems (CHI 2017). n
Yang Wang
Tarek Rakha
Senem Velipasalar
Tarek Rakha (second from left) and students fly a drone equipped with thermal imaging equipment around the Center of Excellence building in downtown Syracuse.
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