Tech
The Hive charges your security drone automatically
Unleash the Bee!
I’ll be honest, I don’t have an expensive property that I need an autonomous drone to patrol, but maybe you do. I love that for you. But how do you keep your whirring little friend dry and charged when you’re away? After all, you need to protect the spoils of capitalism you’ve accumulated, right?
Sunflower Labs has created an automated drone home security system that really looks after itself. There are three essential parts, the Hive, the Bee, and the Sunflower sensors. In a nutshell, if the system detects motion on your property, it can deploy the drone automatically to go check out the issue.
The Hive — We’ve seen automatic drone charging pads before, but they’ve been big, boxy monstrosities or they just don’t have any weatherproofing at all. But Sunflower Labs’ Hive is about as sleek as an outdoor charging pad can be. The drone is guided by GPS and the light in the center of the Hive, and inside there’s a powerful computer that processes data from the Sunflower sensors that you place around your yard that detect motion and vibration.
The Bee — The Bee is the drone itself. It’s a relatively standard drone; nothing exotic or uncommon about it, but it can fly for about 15 minutes and includes obstacle avoidance sensors in addition to the standard array of cameras.
The Sunflower sensors — As mentioned above, the Sunflower sensors detect motion and vibration, but they look like regular yard lights. The representative I spoke to said you need at least four sensors around your yard, but you can add more for either increased coverage or more detailed sensing around your yard.
Who this is for — This security system, like most security systems, is meant for rich people who are afraid of ambitious members of the proletariat taking their shit. After all, I’m told that the system starts at around $10,000. But as a non-monied citizen of Brooklyn, I could imagine putting a system like this on the roof of my apartment and having the Bee respond to an SOS call from my phone. How cool would that be?
