Pre-emptive strike against unmanned domestic drones
Kassel, Germany, 27.01.2015 – Dedrone GmbH has announced the world's first professional system to battle the threat of unmanned domestic drones. The DroneTracker detects unmanned aircraft and guards against spying, smuggling, potential terrorist attacks and invasions of personal privacy.
“The fact a drone was able to enter a highly secured area such as the White House yesterday, shows the importance of an effective protection system to combat a real modern day threat”, says Dr. Ingo Seebach, founder and Managing Partner of Dedrone GmbH. The Drone Tracker system utilizes a variety of acoustic and visual sensors to identify and locate approaching airborne threats in real time, providing an unprecedented level of protection for Private, Industrial and Government applications. Dedrone's compact system can be mounted on the walls, windows or other external fixtures of a home or commercial building. When a drone is detected in the airspace under surveillance, the DroneTracker will provide an appropriate warning such as audible alarm, email, SMS, home alarm system, or contact of appropriate agency. The DroneTracker's on board camera will capture and store photographs and videos that subsequently provide the user with important information and concrete legal evidence of the threat.
Drones can certainly provide a benefit to modern day life, such as the aerial inspection of bridges, overhead power lines, or delivery of products to remote areas, but they can easily be used to spy on neighbours, smuggle drugs, deliver weapons into prisons, or, even more sinister tasks. "We are very concerned about the increasing sophistication of drones and their ability to be used to carry harmful payloads into areas that were not easily accessible in the past. It is not outside of the realm of possibility for a drone to transport and deliver an explosive device into a public or secured area", explains Dr. Ingo Seebach. "This is a real threat that we MUST address". With current drone sales at approximately 300,000 units per month, the risk of misuse is considerable. “A simple internet search for drones in the news is very revealing” says Seebach. Reports of this misuse occur daily. Just a few days before the incident at the US White House, a drone hauling more than 6 pounds of crystal meth crashed in Mexico, near the San Ysidro Port of Entry, and on January 20th the media reported that a drone above the Élysée Palace in Paris put the French security guards on high alert."
Performance capabilities of drones are increasing, however prices continue to fall: a drone that can carry a payload of up to 5 kilogrammes (11 pounds) over a distance of several kilometres can be purchased for less than 1,600 euros ($1800 US). These drones are now capable of being fully automatic, flying on auto-pilot with the aid of GPS navigation, reaching a target located several kilometres from its human pilot that programmed it on its course. Seebach says: "As the performance of drones improves, so does the risk of their being used for criminal purposes. As a result, we must be able identify and deal with these threats."
Dedrone GmbH has engineered the first professional anti-drone early-warning and identification system for all applications. It is modular in construction, can be integrated in existing alarm systems and works with state of the art multi sensor system.