We’re in the era of what some may jokingly describe as “Jetson-like.” Go ahead and scoff, but when you sit down and think about it, it isn’t that far off: our phones and electronic devices are “smart” and speak to us, we have a land rover on Mars sending us images of Earth, and we are only 1 year away from the date Marty McFly traveled to in Back To The Future… Believe me yet?
One of the biggest indications that “the future is now” is the recent exponential popularity and widespread the use of drones. Defined as a remote controlled pilotless aircraft, the drone technology has also more accurately been named Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). An Unmanned Aerial System can range in size from a small remote control airplane to a giant intercontinental global hawk. Presently, the technology is being used by the military for random antiterrorist measures, but the transition to the commercial security market is underway. In the past month, the United Arab Empire has announced its plan to use drones to deliver government documents (such as drivers’ licenses) to residents and simultaneously help monitor road traffic; the drone will require fingerprint recognition to the recipient before delivering the package. According to reports, the UAE has been conducting tests for the last 3 months and is set to put a trial run to the operation in Dubai. In contrast, drones were recently used commercially in the United States to aid firefighters with emergency situations in Providence, RI.
Southern California (more specifically San Diego) is one of several regions vying for the title of being the country’s “Center of Excellence” for the UAS technology development. Rich with companies invested in innovation, combined with heavy military influence, San Diego is the perfect city to trailblaze this developing industry. However, as progress ensues, chatter about the UAS evolvement from military use to the commercial sector grows louder and brings us to a key question: is this the next opportunity for the security industry?
Currently, a surveillance system is a static installation – it can be compromised because static, by its very nature, is vulnerable to penetration. By incorporating UAS that utilize sensors (e.g. camera, electro-optical IR, thermal imaging), security systems can create unpredictable surveillance patterns and add another layer of defense to the equation. Yet, with more intricacies comes a higher cost, especially that involving drone maintenance. The obvious end users would be large infrastructures such as power facilities, water districts, dams, border regions and areas with vast land responsibility, and similarly large commercial industrial areas such as factories, distribution centers and campus-type businesses; but is there a way to make UAS technology affordable for the commercial sector?
Over the years we have seen game changing leaps in our industry– most recently the proliferation of the internet and the rapid acceleration in the improvement of wireless technology. However, the technological advancement of adding drones to security surveillance is flights above the rest, pun intended. With UAS, security companies could completely eradicate false alarm dispatches, catch fire hazards before they spark, receive real-time viewing of an incident and warn on-scene law enforcement of any potential dangers on the premise, etc. Nevertheless, before the dream can come to reality, many questions require answers first: Would the Federal Aviation Administration regulate flight paths over large open land? Because of the sensitive nature of emergency scenes, how would security companies ensure the privacy of incidents caught on camera? Would Central Station operators be manning drones from their dispatch desks?
I argue it won’t be long before the security industry connects the dots, and we would love to hear your thoughts on the issue! How do you think drones will shape the future of your security system?
We encourage you to visit our website to learn more about the services we offer and how we can help protect you and your business: http://www.sdasecurity.com/.