Privacy is going to be more difficult to protect than ever in the drone-filled age.
Competitors, thieves, or even just your neighbours could be spying on your every move using a remote-controlled flying camera.
That's the kind of paranoia Domestic Drone Countermeasures (DDC) is hoping to tap into with its new personal drone detection system Kickstarter project - a black box that promises to go beep when a drone flies within 15 metres of its sensors.
"Drones are becoming more capable all the time and this is why it's alarming. They fly with payloads like still cameras, video cameras, infrared detectors, thermal detectors, among other things, and they are already being used for surveillance," DDC founder Amy Ciesielka said.
"Though there are legitimate uses for domestic drones, there is still concern about invasion of privacy and surveillance by various entities."
In the UK it is illegal to fly a drone within 50 metres of a structure even for recreation, while commercial use of drones has to be cleared by the Civil Aviation Authority.
But in the US personal drones are not regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration and can be flown around buildings and built-up areas.
In Hong Kong, all drone flights require approval from the Civil Aviation Department, but enthusiasts have been known to skirt laws with small hobby drones.
DDC has been working on the technology for more than a year and promises to warn users of personal drone snooping before it's too late. The kit cannot detect military drones as "they fly too high and are too sophisticated", according to the company.
The kit consists of three boxes - a primary command and control unit that connects via Wi-fi to the internet, and two sensors that are placed about the home.
If a drone is detected, the command and control unit sends a notification to the user's smartphone, tablet or computer, even while the user is away from home. The kit does not promise to actually block the drone's invasion of privacy, yet.
In April, Robert Knowles became the first person convicted in the UK for "dangerously" flying a drone.
A starter kit costs US$499 on Kickstarter, but as ever with crowd-funded projects, the system may not come to fruition.
http://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1538483/drone-detector-alerts-you-neighbourhood-spies
Comments
At AVC practice on Thursday night, there was this couple walking around with some sophisticated sound measuring equipment, sampling our machines. They said they were conducting SPL checks for the event tomorrow, but it didn't seem plausible. I wondered if they were actually collecting samples of the sound of drones for an accoustic detection system.
I had to clean up the coffee I spit all over my keyboard from laughing the first time I saw this...
note, the kickstarter has only "sold" one unit, the rest are warm-and-fuzzies probably from friends.
Three weeks of the kickstarter to go and only 10% of the way toward funding a pathetic field trial. It seems the public were not stupid enough to fall for this attempt to profit from sensationalist nonsense.
This is a threat addressed by the NASA UAS Challenge.
http://www.uasaoc.org/
GPS is not directional
What about them? Yes, they're illegal too. I think the only legal-ish thing possible at this point is to use a shotgun with hopes of it being over your property without permission gives you grounds to shoot it. Probably still illegal but more legal than any other means I've seen so far
That seems a bit silly, no one would be "spying" on someone at point-blank range. 15 meters is a useless max-range for detection. I sure hope no one buys into this useless black box for $499.