Being Pestered By Drones? Buy a Drone-Hunting Drone

schwit1 writes, "Are paparazzi flying drones over your garden to snap you sunbathing? You may need the Rapere, the drone-hunting drone which uses 'tangle-lines' to quickly down its prey." From The Telegraph's article: It has been designed to be faster and more agile than other drones to ensure that they can't escape - partly by limiting flight time and therefore reducing weight. “Having worked in the UAS industry for years, we've collectively never come across any bogus use of drones. However it's inevitable that will happen, and for people such as celebrities, where there is profit to be made in illegally invading their privacy, there should be an option to thwart it,” the group say on their website. This seems more efficient than going after those pesky paparazzi drones with fighting kites (video), but it should also inspire some skepticism: CNET notes that the team behind it is anonymous, and that "Rapere works in a lab setting, however there aren't any photos or videos of the killer drone in action. The website instead has only a slideshow of the concept."

Comments

Heh

[Torp]

There was that old sf story by Robert Silverberg, I think, that went like this: They made automated police drones (they weren't called drones back then) that prevented any violent crime from happening. Unfortunately they had learning circuits and decided even killing animals for food or harvesting crops was violent crime, and the society ended up starving. The solution was to create a new kind of drone to kill the existing drones - but this also had learning circuits and it decided it had to kill everyone.
Looks pretty realistic these days. Anyone remember the name of the story, and the author if i got it wrong?

Re:Heh

[Anonymous Coward]

"Watchbird" by Robert Sheckley.

Solution looking for a problem

[retroworks]

How big a market is this "defensive" drone problem? Seems more likely the market is bullies chasing down innocent drones

Re:Solution looking for a problem

[Harlequin80]

Depending on the height an air rifle, or if that is illegal a decent slingshot would be a cheaper easier alternative. You don't need to do a lot of damage to bring them down.

If we are talking serious height, chances are you haven't even noticed it is there.

Re:Solution looking for a problem

[TheRealHocusLocus]

If there's a drone hovering over my land, or my 'charge' if I am hired security, it is guilty until proven innocent.

We did not build fences and walls -- and for that matter -- start wearing clothes, only to keep out the weather. We developed personal boundaries and we even invisibly project them around us when we move. If you've ever been asked "What're YOU lookin' at?" by someone, you know this even extends to where you are gazing in public. A common stumble in across cultures is violating staring rules. Expected behavior and perceived intent matters.

One of our sharpest instinctive startle-reactions is the sudden appearance of eyes in places where eyes were not expected, or where eyes should not be. This has evolved with us from a predator mechanism, where swift action becomes necessary, and it is why spotting glowing eyes around a campfire generates a moment of apprehension. Modern humans have correctly characterized drones as eyes in the sky. Unlike helicopters which strive to spend their time beyond the dead man's curve drones are close and personal and quiet.

You can also follow this eyes in the sky phenomenon in history. Even friendly nations felt it necessary to go on alert when their neighbors unexpectedly entered their airspace for reconnaissance flights, and during the Cold War these incursions were considered acts of war. The Treaty On Open Skies was the culmination of 50 year effort to declare aerial surveillance a mutually beneficial activity. Originally proposed by Eisenhower, this treaty was like a 'cease and desist' order for those who sought to keep aerial photography out of reach of the common man, just as there are those who would try to keep secure encryption from the public, oh holy shit President Obama why are you starting this Clipper crap again, sorry about that, and has paved the way for the Google Earth we all know and love to browse.

Interestingly the treaty limits its signatories' ground resolution to 30 centimeters. Enough to count fighter planes but not good enough to gawk at bathing beauties.

So scale this eyes where eyes are not supposed to be thing down to the personal level as part of a right to privacy. The problem is that predatory paparazzi are assholes and bullies, and the people who read tabloid magazines are their silent enablers. For every measure, a suitable countermeasure. That is the market, and you can bet if I was on a security detail one of these would be on my Xmas list.

If you are comforted to be watched over by machines of loving grace... smile, you're on Candid Camera.

Cheaper: Ballons

[drolli]

Put 4 big helium ballons and place nylon wires between them. Operates 24h a day and is cheap.

Re:Inevitible

[Baron_Yam]

Don't forget that guy in New Zealand who designed and built an inexpensive home-built cruise missile that could be launched from a pickup truck. It wasn't big, but it was effectively unstoppable and theoretically pretty easy to launch and escape without getting caught.

The important part here, is that he built a guidance system for it. Adapt that for a small drone platform, and suddenly you don't need to be at the controls or within visual range of the thing.

Begun

[Intrepid imaginaut]

The drone war has!