Japanese Security Firm to Start Renting Surveillance Drones

Just $58 a month will get you your very own private surveillance drone

2 min read

Japanese Security Firm to Start Renting Surveillance Drones

We know, it's Friday. And usually, we post a whole bunch o' videos on Fridays, but since we've done that for two out of our last three posts (!), we figured we'd give you a bit of a break. Instead, we've got this little quadrotor from Japan that's trying to be the next level of paranoia in private security.

And there will be videos!

The drone itself is made by zee Germans over at Ascending Technologies, while Secom did all the software and tacked on some additional sensors and accessories. It's not designed to do any proactive security, but rather to take on more of a surveillance role, collecting pics of unfamiliar people and vehicles and notifying the authorities. It's not exactly the stealthiest at doing this, although sounding like a huge swarm of insects may also serve as something of a deterrent. Here's the drone in action.

Fun, if terrifying, as the demonstration clearly shows. The potential problem, though, is that one swift smack with that crowbar would likely end the useful service life of your drone. Our advice? Either put lasers on the thing, or give it an arm so that it can haul perps directly to the hoosegow. Starting in 2014, you'll be able to rent one of these for just $58 a month.

Oh, and I bet you're wondering what that other robot was, weren't you? It's called the RobotX, and it's another guard robot from Secom. Unlike the quadrotor, this one really is scary, because it will threaten you in the voice of a little girl, and then charge you and then fire some sort of weapon which may or may not be instantly deadly:

Flee, puny humans. FLEE!

[ Secom ] via [ AFP ]

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