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Point-And-Shoot Weapon Stops Drones Without Destroying Them
An anonymous reader writes: Unmanned aerial vehicles — so-called drones — can be helpful, malicious, or simply disruptive, depending on the intentions of those who use them. But while regular folks have to be worried about law suits if they shoot one down, law enforcement officers have a better solution, and one that's currently legal (for them): stop one mid-flight. This can be achieved with DroneDefender, a recently made available "gun" that uses radio control frequency disruption technologies to safely stop drones in the air, before they can pose a threat to military or civilian safety.
Shooting high intensity RF through a pointable device? One that could also be pointed at, oh I dunno, that annoying a-hole talking too loud on his phone? Or that cop chasing you for whatever reason?
Not to mention the hazards of having 20 lb of plastic and steel falling several feet out of the sky onto who knows what?
Prolly won't work for a lot of them anyway, if they lose signal they're programmed to head home.
I see fail in a lot of different areas on this one.
"Return to Base" is still a mission kill from a police perspective. As long as it's not taking embarrassing videos, whatever else it does is fine.
Then drones will eventually be hardened, use frequency-hopping or burst communication, have longer range optic capabilities, fly at higher altitudes and be stealthier, etc etc. They'll be fixed up to drop remote transmitters, drop cameras into nearby trees and onto nearby buildings, and lots of other tricks.
I'm not sure the authorities can win this one (although I'm sure they'll try).
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
I'd agree with your assessment regarding military drones, but probably not for civilian types. The technology will only escalate if the participants are actively trying to defeat those defensive mechanisms. Why would most drones or their operators care about that, since they likely have no intention of doing anything that would get them in trouble with law enforcement in the first place?
Besides, if the drone defeats the radio-based approach, law enforcement (or military) will simply resort to the "flying lead" approach. There's not a lot of defensive measures you can take against a well aimed shotgun - presumably the gun of choice for forcefully removing drones from the air.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
The gun also jams GPS making some (most?) of the return-to-home features dysfunctional.
Sounds like a great toy for the brave new driverless car future.