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DJI App to Identify Drones and Pilots
Drone maker DJI introduces app designed to identify drones and locate their pilots.
15:16 17 November 2019
Drone maker DJI has recently designed an app that has the capability to identify drones and locate pilots using a protocol called “Wi-Fi Aware”. The app aims to help prevent security threats and disruptions particularly in airports.
DJI explained: “Using a simple app, anyone within radio range of the drone can receive that signal and learn the location, altitude, speed and direction of the drone, as well as an identification number for the drone and the location of the pilot.”
However, experts are not convinced that the app can prevent all drone-related threats and disruptions. They believe that sophisticated criminals will eventually find a way to circumvent detection.
Ulrike Franke, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, who studies the impacts of the drone industry, said: “It’s going to be very useful against rogue drones,”
“But it's not going to be enough to fight people with real bad intentions, because these are going to be the first people to hack this system."
In December 2018, a drone flew in protected airspace at Gatwick Airport, causing the facility to shut down.
Adam Lisberg, from DJI, said: “If Gatwick staff had a smartphone enabled with this capability in their pockets, they could have taken it out, seen a registration number for the drone, seen the flight path, and the location of the operator.”
“They could look on the map and say: ‘Right behind that building.”