Residential Security Drones Flying in

The vision of drone protected homes

So what is this drone business all about? Quadcopters are relatively small devices, designed to fly and hover in the air. Although they’re capable of carrying small-caliber weapons, a camera is more fitting for home-defense purposes. In the future, drones will have similar roles as indoor and outdoor security cameras. Armed with an HD camera, they’ll patrol a set route above the establishment. One moving drone is going to replace several cameras, as it can visit several strategic points on its patrol. Burglars won’t be able to cut its wires or steal the hardware. You can also set it to wandering mode, which ensures that the flight pattern is random, so criminals won’t be able to memorize the routine.

Keeping it up in the air 24/7 obviously demands huge battery power, thus it’s more reasonable to keep it in standby mode and the quadcopter only takes off when an infrared sensor detects unauthorized movement around the house. The concept is a clear proof that drones won’t replace traditional sensor-based alarms, but rather enhance their capabilities.

The Alpha Quadcopter

“That sounds awesome! Where can I get one for myself?” you may ask. Well, drone technology is still taking its first baby steps (or flights rather), and the technology isn’t integrated into any home security package at the moment. However, several clever innovations have been submitted for crowdfunding. The Alpha quadcopter is one fine example. It’s fitted with a night-vision camera, which captures both visual and audio footage. From this point, you probably know the jig: the footage is instantly uploaded to a cloud server, and you are able to access it through your smartphone. Still, mid-air recordings cover larger spectrums, and you can either zoom the live footage, or order the drone (still from your phone) to change position to get a better picture from the suspect.

There are two big problems with Alpha: first, there are no corporal backers behind it; and second: the battery only allows 20 minutes uninterrupted flight time, and after that a recharge is in due. Still, we eagerly wait for the day where we review a drone-centered home security system.