Australia’s waters are home to some
dangerous creatures: jellyfish, salt-water crocodiles, and Great White
sharks. “Unprovoked” shark attacks more
than doubled between 1990-2000 and 2005-2015, to 15. However, one company in Western Australia has
a futuristic solution: a drone.
Shark Alert International will try
equipping a helicopter and a drone with military-grade cameras that can “x-ray”
the water and then send alerts to lifeguards and even surfers’ watches. The technology was originally designed to
help America detect a different foe: Russian submarines. The drone will see deep into the water by
taking images at several different frequencies every second. Tests in California found that it could spot
dummy sharks 15 feet beneath the surface with total accuracy, but could work at
twice that depth in Perth’s sandy seas.
Helicopters and low-flying planes
have long patrolled popular beaches, but human spotters are expensive and often
ineffectual since not all sharks swim near the surface. In addition, choppy waters and bright
reflections make sharks difficult to spot when they do. Drones can hover over beaches constantly,
have already been tested in some parts of the country, and are even
cheaper. This summer the drones will
feed live videos through a system that is taught how to differentiate sharks
from surfers and boats with far greater accuracy than the human eye. Messages can then be relayed to lifeguards
and emergency services, while megaphones attached to the drones blast out
warnings when a dangerous species is spotted.
I think it will be interesting to see how the drones can impact the
number of tourists that come to the beaches to swim or surf. In addition, I am curious to see if shark
tour companies will use this product to quickly find sharks, and possibly raise
prices if they can show off many different sharks on each tour.
I understand that human spotters may be expensive but to me, the switch to drones and helicopters will only increase this expense. The drones and helicopters provide a new expense to be covered and there will still be a need for human capital to operate the drones and helicopters. I'm not sure this will cut costs at all and it will probably increase them if anything. I do think that the drones will help drop the number of shark attacks though.
ReplyDeleteI think this is an innovative way of keeping beach-goers and surfers safe. Australia's waters are very dangerous as you stated in the first paragraph. They have already tried to watch over the waters with human eyes, which is not efficient financially or in terms of safety. The drones can be cheaper and more effective. It is a great business idea, as they can expand to make new alert systems through watches and other products. Hopefully they don't take advantage of anyone through this, through costs and other things. This should just be used as a technology to keep people safe.
ReplyDeleteI think that this is a futuristic technology that will struggle to gain popularity initially. Heavy coastal winds along with salty residue from the ocean mist will be an issue for the equipment at first. However, once the technology evolves I think this will give beach goers a peace of mind. In addition to this I think that there are other useful applications like spotting dangerous animals near camp sights along with potentially spotting wildfires before they get out of hand.
ReplyDeleteI think that this will have a huge impact on the drone market as a whole like Drew said and has almost limitless applications. However, there is a phase out period and it won't happen right away people are reluctant to give up their jobs so it may take longer than expected. I am curious to see how this will effects the current job market as well as the demand for skilled pilots around the coastal areas of Australia.
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