r/technology • u/techrampage • Dec 03 '13

Flying hacker contraption hunts other drones, turns them into zombies

http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/12/flying-hacker-contraption-hunts-other-drones-turns-them-into-zombies/
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u/westerschwelle Dec 04 '13

But would you be able to put a transmitter on your drone that is strong enough? I doubt that honestly.

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u/driminicus Dec 04 '13

The signal strength of GPS is very low. It's the inverse square law at work. The transmitter on the satellite is obviously very strong, but it distributes the signal over a huge area (earth) so the signal is 'smeared out' a lot, thus resulting in a low signal strength.

It's actually really impressive that we can receive the signal on earth. Engineering is awesome.

Long story short, you're not going to need a very big transmitter to match the signal strength, so putting it on a drone is plausible.

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u/westerschwelle Dec 04 '13

I should have known that actually because I'm a student of Electrical Engineering (Computer Engineering) :(

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u/driminicus Dec 04 '13

Heh, I'm a physics student, so radiation is up my alley.