Where to Begin in 2020
- By Ralph C. Jensen
- Feb 01, 2020
One thing for certain this
new year will be the advancement
of technology.
This is an ongoing
phenomenon that brings
new developments and solutions, and introduces
completely new additions to the
security industry.
Just before Christmas, the family and I
took our annual pilgrimage to the mountains
of Utah. The skiing was terrific in the
best snow on earth. But before all that started,
I took the time to interview and witness
an emerging technology in drone defense.
We all know drones are available and
being used as play toys for fun and games,
but we also know there are evil actors in
the world. Not every drone is a friendly
drone. I sat and chatted with Dave Preese
of Fortem Technologies. We set aside a
couple of hours because we went to a field
somewhere south of Provo, Utah, where I
saw a demonstration of DroneHunter in
action. This is our cover story in this issue.
The story gets to the bottom line of
drone defense, but what it can’t show is the
amazing technology at 2,000 feet in the
air. For that matter, it would be 20,000 feet
above the ground. For the purpose of my
eyesight, this demonstration was closer to
1,000 feet in the crisp Utah air.
With a selected target site already under
protection, the evil drone flew around
the site long enough to warrant the good
drone to be launched by a computer operator.
The most fascinating part of a
launched drone is that once it is in the atmosphere,
human control is discontinued,
the patented radar locks on the evil drone,
and the race begins.
If the evil drone continues to pass
through the restricted area, DroneHunter
moves in, on target, and deploys a nylon
net to bring the evil actor down. Amazingly,
the capture drone does not fall to
the earth, but is carried to the ground for
inspection of payload.
To be honest, all this took place so far
away, making it difficult to see. But watching
the good drone fly into action was
an incredible sight. It was exhilarating to
watch the net deploy and the bad drone
immediately stop flying.
A final point to make on this story:
A tour through the warehouse of staff
revealed a team of young people were
engaged in the next generation of innovation.
Maybe I’m just getting old, but it
seems to me that tomorrow’s technology
is being created by children. No offense
intended: I’m sure it is the younger generation
that is bringing these new ideas and
creativity to the marketplace.
This article originally appeared in the January / February 2020 issue of Security Today.
About the Author
Ralph C. Jensen is the Publisher/Editor in chief of Security Today magazine.