Just when you thought drones couldn't get any more terrifying, here comes a drone helicopter with a friggin' stun gun attached, a flying machine that will chase you down, shock you to the ground, and then hover over your twitching body.
[UPDATE: A previous version of this article used the word "taser" to describe the technology used. "Taser" is a trademark of Taser International, and we have replaced all instances of "Taser" and "tase" to reflect the fact that an actual "Taser" was not used. Hackaday has also changed the name of its hack from "TaserDrone" to "ShockerDrone"; all instances of "TaserDrone" have also been changed to "ShockerDrone"].
...or something like that. The guys at Hackaday, a website that presents "fresh hacks each day, every day from around the web," have frankenstein-ed together a Parrot AR Drone copter with stun gun technology, resulting in a flying, menacing, electrified drone that can deliver a shock to anyone that has the misfortune of being in its path. And while the ShockerDrone (as Hackaday is calling it) cannot produce a shock strong enough to incapacitate a human (yet!), it can at least break the skin, as this photo shows; could this, perhaps, give a glimpse of future, floating law enforcement?
Here's a video put together by Hackaday showing how the ShockerDrone was built, and how it will be used in the future to hunt Man, The Most Dangerous Game:
We've seen these small, remote-control drones do some pretty wicked stuff in the past -- here, for example, is one delivering a fresh pizza -- and there is even a Tumblr called Dronehacks that follows the different ways in which the Parrot AR Drone had been configured and changed. This repurposed zap-happy drone, however, seems a tad more sinister than most.
"I’d love to have a few of these," a Hackadays commenter named John said. "Camera picks up a neighborhood kid walking around on my lawn… release the drones! :D As an automated swarm it would be the greatest thing ever sirs."
Technically, of course, you could do this without the shocking -- a Parrot AR Drone zipping toward your face is frightening enough to make any neighborhood kid run. Too, the Parrot is likely available at your local Brookstone for $299 (tasing system not included). Whether or not it is wise, safe, or cost-effective to base your home security on constantly airborne drones, meanwhile, is another story.
And yet: The ShockerDrone does exist, for whatever purpose you can imagine. You can read more about the construction of the Shockerdrone, and see more photos, at Hackaday.