The rise of amateur-piloted drones has been, without a doubt, causing issues. So far this year, commercial pilots in the U.S. have reported 650 sightings of drones near their aircraft to the Federal Aviation Administration. Complaints of drones causing danger or invading privacy are increasing as the small aircraft become cheaper and more capable, but researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, might have come up with a solution to hold operators accountable.
Currently in its testing stages, a project called Lightcense is a license plate of sorts, made up of a rectangular array of bright, multi-colored LEDs that attaches to the underside of a craft. The LEDs blink a unique patter that could be looked up in a database by law enforcement to identify a drone’s owner.
Pulsing LEDs on the underside of drones could function as license plates that allow law enforcement to trace the operator of a misbehaving craft. Image: lightcense.co.
Designed to be decoded by a smartphone app, specialized camera equipment used by police, or even memorized by someone who discovers a drone up to no good, the LED license plate is visible from 500 feet away in daylight.
Researchers at Berkeley are also finishing an improved license plate design in the form of a box about the size and shape of a smartphone that packages together an LED license plate with a standard aircraft location beacon and battery. It’s intended as a standardized component that could be attached to any type of drone, and would keep operating even if it crashed.
As of right now, there are no plans to bring this technology to market, but the research team would like to see it go commercial at some point.
Thoughts or opinions? Let us know — leave a comment below.
Source: Technology Review
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