Deleted Drone Video from a DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise

The pandemic has afforded us the opportunity to spend time with drone datasets we previously released to the public. Over these next three weeks, we're going to drop some big surprises that seem to be previously undiscovered. See the video at the bottom of this page.

Our first surprise is a deleted, corrupted video that was identified on a DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise. The Mavic 2 Enterprise has two eMMC packages soldered to the printed circuit board. This video was identified on one of the eMMC packages. As the video is deleted, corrupted and sitting in an unallocated area of the flash storage, we do not have accompanying metadata to pin this video to a particular date and time.

Across the other Mavic 2 Enterprise devices we have had access to, we have found similar deleted, corrupted videos of what appears to be the same room on each device. As the devices were purchased new, we know the history of the devices from purchase and we did not create the environment you see portrayed in the photos.

Interesting things of note:

1. The Front Wall

The front wall appears to be a collage of images with a primary portion of the repeating image to be the front page of a newspaper called the Fort Bend Herald. Much of the text is difficult to read but we were able to ascertain that this is a copy of the Fort Bend Herald from March 16, 2013. Newspaper URL: https://www.fbherald.com/

Article #1 identified: https://www.fbherald.com/news/richmond-to-consider-2nd-street-adjustment/article_fdc799b8-8e48-11e2-bc0d-001a4bcf887a.html

Article #2 identified: https://www.fbherald.com/news/paint-studio-reveals-inner-artists/article_0d77be24-8e49-11e2-843c-001a4bcf887a.html

The additional overlayed images of the collage have not yet been identified.

How a paper copy of the Fort Bend Herald arrived at a testing lab at some other location on the planet is a curious question.

2. The Rear Wall The rear wall appears to be a series of stations behind a glassed in wall where testers place a drone to be validated then slide it out onto a table for a validation flight.

At least eleven different stations appear in the video with red or green lights on the table top of many stations. We searched the video frame-by-frame for in focus shots of the back wall but the camera pans too quickly for a clear shot. Technicians can be seen wearing red shirts behind the glassed windows as the video pans from right to left across the back wall.

Other videos we have recovered place the drone in different areas of the room as if they came from different validation or testing locations.

3. The Floor

The floor is a mesmerizing collage of images, all focused on a yellow/blue/green/black template. The images appear to be of similar size and repeating patterns of the images can be identified as you look across the floor patterns.

The yellow/blue/green/black color pallete is similar to the colors identified on the front wall at the beginning and end of the video.

Summary:

No time date stamp information was identified from the deleted corrupted MP4 file.

No geolocation can be identified (e.g. a matching flight record) for the location of the video.

Our suggestion that this video portrays a testing or validation lab is a best guess based on the room setup with gimbal movements and recorded video.

Over the coming weeks, we have some other big surprises in store to share with you.