The evolution of smart home security is coming, and it’s in the form of an autonomous security drone. Honestly, who isn’t saying “just take my money” right now? This innovative security system is the creative brainchild of Sunflower Labs and currently available for pre-order.
Despite how it sounds, it’s not just a drone that flies over your house. It’s actually a much more complex system involving elegant garden sensors and a highly advanced charging station. This really could make your house the smartest on the block.
Sunflower Autonomous Security Drone
Sunflower, Sunflower Lab’s autonomous security drone, is a three-part system.
- Bee (drone) – Includes safety features and a real-time video feed.
- Sunflowers (garden light sensors) – Works as activity sensors while blending into your property.
- Hive (charging station) – Provides a weatherproof charging station that also includes AI-powered computing for updates.
While it might seem simple, these three components work together 24/7 to keep an entire property safer.
Also read: How Drones Are Saving Lives
The Bee in Flight
Even though the Bee is a fully autonomous drone, you still maintain control over when it flies. Set a schedule or remotely launch Bee whenever you want to check out an overview of your property.
The good thing is the Bee even works at night due to its low-light HD video camera. This doesn’t mean you’ll get perfect shots during a new moon with no lights around your property, but you’ll still get a decent view of your home in lower-light situations.
The ultrasonic object avoidance sensor prevents the drone from randomly flying into your home, car, or other objects on your property. Infrared landing cameras ensure it goes back to the Hive every time.
If you’re wondering how it doesn’t just fly off somewhere else, geofencing keeps it contained. Geofencing creates a virtual fence using coordinates. Your drone stays within this fence at all times so that it’s not straying onto your neighbor’s property.
Of course, you can also use the Bee as a standard drone, too. Take fun aerial pictures during a party or just get a great picture of your property.
With a full charge, a Bee can fly for up to fifteen minutes. It can fly up to 300 feet away from the Hive and cover approximately four acres. It only takes twenty-five minutes to charge.
Sunflowers in Action
Sunflowers look like standard garden stake lights and blend in perfectly with your yard. No one will even realize they’re powerful sensors feeding activity data back to the Hive. The system learns your normal activities and won’t alert you unless something is out of the ordinary. If the sensors detect movement where none should be, you’ll get an alert. If your Bee isn’t already flying, you can launch it to check out the situation.
Unlike standard motion sensors, Sunflowers contain twelve sensors each and share data to help prevent false alarms. After all, you don’t want them going off every time you have a rabbit in your yard.
Between the Bee and Sunflowers, you’ll see heatmaps and details of where suspicious people have been so you can track their movements. Having an overview also helps local authorities know exactly where to look.
As one added benefit, Sunflowers have color-changing lights. Use them to create fun backyard scenes or light-up your front yard in festive colors.
The Home Hive
The Hive contains an embedded supercomputer for processing data. Whenever your drone isn’t in the air, it’ll come back to its Hive. Instead of just sitting on top of it, the Hive opens, allowing the drone to sit safely inside. This prevents damage.
The Hive also has a weather-proof shell to protect the internal computer from the rain and elements. It might not look that impressive, but it’s the core of the entire autonomous security drone system.
Control Your Privacy
Obviously, if you’re seriously considering a security system this advanced, you’re probably also concerned about data privacy. You choose exactly where your security data and videos are stored. Store them in the cloud or locally for optimal privacy.
Serious Security Comes at a Price
Before you get too excited, there is one major con – the price. Sunflower’s system isn’t cheap. In fact, the base system costs $9,950 with additional Sunflowers costing $495 each. It’s probably not for most of us, but we can all dream, right?
At any rate, it’s an amazing system that shows how home security is evolving. In a few years, systems like these could become more normal and hopefully, much lower-priced. Would you ever consider an autonomous security drone system for your home?
Image credit: good neighbor fence with privacy
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Crystal Crowder –
Staff Writer
Crystal Crowder has spent over 15 years working in the tech industry, first as an IT technician and then as a writer. She works to help teach others how to get the most from their devices, systems, and apps. She stays on top of the latest trends and is always finding solutions to common tech problems.
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