Downing drones
Matt Hervey
AI and IP expert, Head of Legal and Policy at Human Native AI, General Editor of The Law of Artificial Intelligence (law, regulation and ethics) #AI #IP #GenerativeAI
Drones are now popular enough to support
businesses seeking their destruction
When nesting sparrows threatened to blight the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace, the young Queen Victoria sent for Wellington, past saviour of Britain against Napoleon. The ‘Iron Duke’ proposed a practical solution: "Sparrow-hawks, Ma’am". 165 years later, a similar approach is being proposed to a very modern problem: Guard from Above, a Dutch Company, offers police forces eagles trained to attack unwelcome drones.
Drones are booming. The smartphone explosion provided hobbyists with compact, affordable packages of the motion sensors, processing power and radio links needed for home-made drones. The hobbyists primed the pump for the increasingly sophisticated and affordable consumer versions now sold in every gadget and toy shop. DJI, a consumer drone manufacturer based in Shenzhen, reported revenues of around $500m in 2014 and is expected to report revenue of $1bn for 2015.
It is a mark of the success of the drone market that it has spawned an ancillary business sector of drone prevention.
The authorities have ample reason to target drones. Drones have been associated with smuggling, illegal political protest and spying. Drones have been used to carry mobile phones and drugs into prisons in the USA, Australia and the UK, to land radioactive material on the office of Japan’s Prime Minister, to vandalise advertising in New York and to observe French nuclear power stations. In the UK, drones have been involved in ‘serious’ near misses with aircraft.
Drones were banned from the Boston Marathon last year. Police used a network of sensors to identify the buzzing of drones from up to 1000 yards (914 metres) and had ‘net guns’ to tangle the rotors of drones within 50 feet (15 metres). Both were supplied by DroneShield, a start-up based in Washington, DC. Companies including Battelle, Dedrone, Domestic Drone Countermeasures, Selex and SRC are developing or selling various drone detection or jamming technologies.
It seems the public, not just the authorities, are interested. The companies developing counter-measures include not only established defence specialists but also crowd-funded start-ups (DroneShield and Domestic Drone Countermeasures). This may reflect growing public concerns with privacy. In the regular panel discussions I coordinate on emerging Tech trends, it is notable that privacy is an issue that comes into almost every discussion. Privacy technology is a growing consumer-facing business sector in its own right.