Drones are becoming increasingly popular and easier to come by. For a couple of hundred dollars one can get a drone that’s equipped with a still or video camera, or even an infrared sensor. Since there are no rules set out by the FAA on usage of small drones and with no changes expected until 2015 at the very least, privacy advocates say this leaves the door open for anyone to peep on private citizens without their knowledge. The Personal Drone Detection System aims to act as a “first line of defense” for people who might be concerned about their privacy being invaded.
It has been developed by Domestic Drone Countermeasures, which says that it has been working on this project for over a year now. They claim to have developed hardware that can detect drones and have even filed patents for it.
The Personal Drone Detection System aims to counter personal drones with cameras or other sensors for which no regulations are in place right now. The system consists of three boxes, a Primary Command and Control Module aided by two Detection Sensor Nodes. They create a mesh network that triangulates moving transmitters.
When the system assumes a signal to be hostile it alerts the user to its presence within the mesh grid. It can sound an alarm and even send a message to a smartphone or tablet, thus keeping users in the loop even if they’re not at the home or office.
One might ask how does the system differentiates between signals from a drones and an iPhone of a jogger going past your house. The company behind it says that they have designed the software to reduce false triggering “as much as possible.”
The company seeks a modest $8,500 through a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to be able to afford putting the system through real world testing scenarios. It says that the prototypes are currently capable of detecting drones in a lab.
Filed in . Read more about Crowdfunding, Drones and Kickstarter.