DeTect Puts a Drone Detector in Your Pocket

The anti-drone sector keeps growing and, alongside the explosion of new startups, a more subtle sub-industry is arising – drone detection.

Think of this new tech surge as the difference between an automotive radar detector and a radar jammer (one will get you arrested).

While anti-drone tech solutions tend to focus on downing or at least controlling errant drones, companies like DeTect simply want to inform and protect the public when an unauthorized drone is near them.

The Panama City-based company announced the release of a free app called the DroneWatcher. As the name implies, the app allows Android-based smart devices to received notification whenever DeTect discovers and tracks drones within a quarter-to-half-mile radius. DroneWatcher is available for download from Google Play.

The app will also alert the user and record information of about 95 percent of all drone models so that someone can not only know that a drone is nearby but actually what kind of drone it is. Once a drone is identified, the app can assist a user in reporting unauthorized drone flights to the proper authorities.

According to a company press release the app offers:

• Low-cost RF sensor network includes DroneWatcherRF and DroneWatcherApp smartphone app
• Includes DeTect’s global drone activity DroneWatcherWeb datasystem and web cloud service with real-time custom user situational awareness displays and intrusion alerting service
• Provides security for 70-80% of consumer remote controlled drone risk

For DeTect, the drone detection business is a natural progression for the 13-year-old company. The company produces — in addition to drone detectors — aircraft bird-strike avoidance radars, airspace and marine security radars, border protection radars, and bird radars for wind farm bird mortality risk mitigation and industrial bird control and protection.

While DroneWatcher is targeting the general consumer market, DeTect is focusing on event planners as well – marketing the app as a security solution for public events such as concerts and fairs, as well as sporting events such as NASCAR races, golf tournaments (shh!) and stadium sports. Beyond the event market, DeTect also hopes to offer DroneWatcher to public-safety agencies for use at airports, prisons, power plants, government facilities and industrial sites.

“Combined with DeTect’s DroneWatcher RF and HARRIER Drone Surveillance Radar, the technology provides the most comprehensive level of drone protection and interdiction available on the market,” said DeTect President and CEO Gary Andrews.