
Tokyo police are using drones with nets to catch other drones - kawera
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/12045733/Tokyo-police-are-using-drones-with-nets-to-catch-other-drones.html
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hitekker
I recall that in the beginnings of World War I, planes were primarily used as
surveillance tools. So the germans and french would send their planes above a
battlefield, and the pilots would see each other, sometimes even wave at each
as they passed by.

A little bit later someone brought a shotgun on one of the planes and the rest
is literal history.

~~~
adrtessier
I'm very curious as to what the reaction was of the first pilot that was shot
at. My guess is he was probably be thinking more "Wow, what an asshole," than
he would be thinking that the aggressor's action makes sense in the context of
war.

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hanniabu
That probably was their reaction considering it's usually the governments that
have issues with each other, not the people. For instance, I have no problem
with Russians or Chinese, I think in general they're nice people, as with any
population, but our governments have problems with each other and that causes
us to fight.

I get we're, for the most part, fighting the ideologies of the other country,
but it's a real shame we can't live in peace. It's the few bad apples - the
greedy, the criminals, the oppressors, the deceiving - that ruin it for
everybody.

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collyw
That generally how I think when I "dislike" a nation. Its not individuals, but
the governments.

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dutchbrit
People will probably start building bigger drones with bigger nets to catch
the police drones. It's just a matter of time.

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informatimago
or smaller drones to go thru the nets. or drones that don't look like drones:

[http://www.mybionicbird.com/](http://www.mybionicbird.com/)

[http://www.snopes.com/photos/technology/insectdrone.asp](http://www.snopes.com/photos/technology/insectdrone.asp)

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glup
"Bionic Bird benefits from strict quality controls that are so rigorous that
each bird is built like a prototype." ....um, what?

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jonathankoren
Ehhh.... Reminds me of the story about when the Soviets were cloning the B-29
to make the Tu-4. Supposedly Stalin ordered an _exact_ copy of the American
bomber, and so the copies were made exact down to the bullet holes.

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leereeves
What was Stalin's reaction?

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maaku
Don't know, nobody lived to tell about it.

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anonfunction
Short clip of the drone catching a drone:

[https://gifs.com/gif/pYYzXr](https://gifs.com/gif/pYYzXr)

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michaelcampbell
Seems it would be equally effective, and a lot less weight, to just drape a
bunch of monofilament lines below rather than a full-on net. Those would get
tangled in the "bad" drone's rotors well enough, I'd reckon.

~~~
adrtessier
Running steel cable or nets, instead of monofilament wire, is pretty much SOP
for denying an area from rotorcraft. There's a pretty cool article on
Wikipedia about prison escapes by helicopter [1] that explains how this is
often implemented in high-security correctional facilities.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_helicopter_prison_esca...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_helicopter_prison_escapes)

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seansmccullough
I like it how there are green or red helicopter icons in the table to indicate
success or failure.

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adrtessier
Yeah, somebody had fun with that article. It's one of my favorites on
Wikipedia.

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bookmarkacc
Is flying your drone away from the nets resisting arrest?

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galapago
Game of Drones!

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samstave
This is beyond funny/awesome to me. Apologies that this doesnt add anything to
the discussion other than my own feelings about the comic-like start to the
anime-style-cyberpunk-future we have all been subconsciously building for the
last 70 years....

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tibarun
Do checkout:
[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/1155690...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/11556902/Drone-
with-small-amounts-of-radioactive-material-lands-on-Japanese-PMs-helipad.html)
which is linked in that same article. It makes me wonder if these drone-
catching techniques will be focused on Fukushima/nuclear related protests or
fly-overs to get independent radiation measurements.

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BorisMelnik
The only next counter-logical (criminal) course of action I can think of is
counter thieves using drones with nets to catch the police drones with nets.

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tajen
Or laser immolation? Or a cloud of little wires to clog the propellers?
Magnetic attack? Helium balloon defense? As someone said above: Begun, the
drone wars have.

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usrusr
Can't decide between "fascinating high-tech solution (drone)" and "fascinating
low-tech solution (net)". Which one is it?

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HillaryBriss
I don't know but my gut reaction to the video was: "That is so f---ing cool I
can't even believe it."

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awqrre
Something like this seems like it would be more efficient:
[http://www.cadincadout.com/dronedefender-radio-gun-waves-
dow...](http://www.cadincadout.com/dronedefender-radio-gun-waves-down-drones-
from-the-sky/)

~~~
kalleboo
That seems dangerous if the quadcopter falls down in the middle of a freeway
or something

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damienkatz
Right. And therefore rather pointless as the reason to capture these drones is
because of safety issues.

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shmerl
It reminds me Watchbird
[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29579](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29579)

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npunt
Watching this gave me a distinct "the future is now" feeling. Odd-shaped
hovering craft designed to take down other hovering crafts would look at home
in most scifi movies.

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maaku
It's official: we're living in the future.

