Personally I don't think concentrating on the detection problem is the best approach. We can jam, and we can put up barriers and reduce a lot of the risks with very low cost. We already have RF direction finding capability which could be deployed to pinpoint not only the drone but the pilot's location, it's a little costly, but it's out there and would be nearly off the shelf. Trying to build a RADAR or IR sensor to hone in on the drone is a nice idea, but high cost, low reward.

Personally I would consider the surveillance activity just as dangerous. Despite what they tell you, all security systems have weak points which may not be visible externally, but if you can observe from the right angles become obvious. Knowing the weak points in advance can make a successful assault out of a bad idea.

Still, being able to pinpoint the pilot based on RF emissions and get there quickly might be a good idea...

I suggest a multilayered approach.. RF jamming, Signal detectors, GPS jamming as well as physical barriers (nets, trees, fences etc). Couple that with a vigorous response to folks flying these things where they shouldn't and the bulk of the problem goes away...

Tune it to the 2.4 Ghz WiFi band too... That will get you the bulk of these things, along with the pilot's equipment..

Better yet, just jam WiFi and folks won't be able to use these things to start with...

That will only find you the pilot, which is not a bad thing, but it's not the direct threat at this point..

They use a set of well known frequencies, usually 2.4Ghz WiFi or the old model aircraft band. Now you can "adjust" these if you know what you are doing, but off the shelf, this is what you generally get.

It's about being able to deflect them and prevent them from doing bad things.

Sure, it's easier to deal with something you can detect in the first place, but if you can effectively block them by putting up barriers, physical and electronic you will have succeeded in your primary goal. So here's my approach..

1. Do your best to detect them, use sound, video and detect the RF signals emitted by the device and the pilot.

2. Erect physical barriers that are not visible to the operator or the device. I'm thinking there is a LOT you can do with simple fishing line in this regard, but I'm sure a lot of tall trees would serve an excellent purpose too. Put up an obstacle course.

3. Put up electronic fences using short range GPS and WiFi jamming around the "protected" area. You can effectively reduce the ability of a drone to find it's way around and make it impossible for it to be remotely controlled.

4. Concentrate your efforts on finding the PILOT. They will likely have an RF transmitter in their hands, so it shouldn't be that hard, unless the drone is self guided (which is why you jam GPS and provide physical barriers).

5. And Finally, if you do detect something flying where you don't want, come up with some non-lethal ways of bringing it down. You don't need to fire anti-aircraft guns at it, there are ways I can think of which wouldn't present much risk to people, but would be effective in bringing down your average hobbyist's drone.

So I say again, detection is but a small piece of the total security puzzle here, and trying to use audio detection is about the LAST way I'd try it...

Let's call it a cloud burst and let it go..

What's happening is providers have entered an era where the supply of the product (cloud services) has saturated the market and the low volume, high overhead operations cannot stay in business. It's the natural "survival of the fittest" phase where the overpopulation of folks providing this service are being weeded down to the handful who will survive.

Like the Hula-Hoop, tickle-me-Elmos and Pet Rock, the fad is reaching it's peak and it's down hill from here. Sell any stock you have in this market....

Not really a problem for two reasons....

1. HUGE data generally requires processing power to sort though, so where it might be cheaper to by shares of some data center's pile of rack mounted servers, once you get to a certain size, building your own makes financial sense. I'm guessing, but it sure seems to me that if you are big enough to be worried about how long it takes to move your data, you will have it locally processed anyway and won't be dependent on a cloud provider.

2. Data has value that is largely age based. Newer data is worth more than the old stuff. So if you *really* have a lot of data laying around that you depend on, you have a design and implementation problem with your big data operation. And if you don't have a design issue and really ARE processing that much data, then transferring the historical data to another provider is largely unnecessary, just switch your data feeds to the new provider and turn off the old provider once the data it has gets stale, which shouldn't be too long.

Sounds like I'm in the wrong business....

Cloud services are pretty much fungible... If provider A tries to turn the thumbscrews, provider B will just under cut them in price and customers will switch in droves the next time the service contract comes up for renewal.

What will actually happen (if it's not already) is that a small number of larger cloud service providers will corner the market and drive the smaller and less efficient providers into mergers, consolidation or just plain out of business. You will end up with 3 or 4 major players, maybe more, but all large, who will dominate the market, control prices to keep the small upstarts from getting much of a foothold in the market.

The price gouging won't really start until you get the number of vendors down to near to 2 and everybody else is afraid of trying to enter the market because there is no growth left. Then prices will go up, but only enough to make the big 2 some cash, while keeping it hard for an upstart to undercut them and grab market share.

When it rains it pours....

I pretty much consider it a black hole already..

Naw... This EE recognizes when there isn't enough understanding on the other end to make it worth the argument. I've responded in another post, but I'll summarize here for those who don't want to wade though the technical details.... It is you who doesn't understand very much beyond basic circuits. It may have been 25 years since I got my BSEE, but I'm pretty sure the principles we are discussing here haven't changed all that much. However, the state of the art in power supply design HAS changed, and it's changed ALOT in that 25 years. We don't use the traditional power transformer to change voltages for electronic equipment anymore, we use "switchers", which truth be told really have transformers buried inside them, only not ones that transform 60 Cycle current from one voltage to another, but ones that transform AC in the Kilohertz range from one voltage to another. ALL switchers really run on DC and almost without fail the FIRST thing that happens in the design is you rectify the AC coming in to make DC out of it. This is state of the art today.

Now I'm not a power supply designer, but a software engineer, but that doesn't mean I don't keep up with my Electrical Engineering roots. I'm a ham radio operator and use my training on a regular basis in my hobby. I also assist with the design and implementation of Solar powered "off grid" power systems for a non-profit missionary organization so I'm not totally out of touch, even if my professional experience is pretty much just software.

SO, good day to you young one... You really need to brush up on your electronics in practice and spend some time looking at modern electronic equipment designs and do a bit of reading where your assumptions don't really match reality...

You'd think that most of the "heating" devices in your home would work fine on DC with only a few modifications. Especially that water heater and ALL of the incandescent light bulbs in the house...

Did you know that a lot of your electronic devices work great on about 100V DC and wouldn't require any modifications? Most modern switching power supplies really don't care if it's AC or DC on the input, they work just the same either way. Don't just go out and hook up your expensive flat screen to the Prius battery (it can damage stuff sometimes) but chances are it would work... My Laptop charger, a PC desktop and LCD display along with a 30A 12VDC switching supply for my radios all worked just fine...

Personally, I think we should go with HIGH voltage DC, use it where it makes sense, and not freak out about having to convert it to AC when the need arises.