SXSW 2014: Company demonstrates CUPID stun-gun drone
Pizza deliveries, 30-minute shipping and now stun guns? The possibilities of drones are truly endless, as a Texas-based company showed in a demonstration of a drone equipped with a stun gun.
Designed by Chaotic Moon Studios, a drone named CUPID was demonstrated to South by Southwest Interactive attendees, who witnessed an intern being zapped with 80,000 volts.
A YouTube video shows the intern falling to the ground after being stunned and being helped by EMTs.
"He volunteered, but is being compensated," Chris Boyles, the content director at Chaotic Moon Studios, told CBS News in an email.
The Chaotic Unmanned Personal Intercept Drone, or CUPID, was designed by Chaotic Moon Studios. The company says it could one day be used to incapacitate criminals.
"We thought a lot about, 'How could this be used?'" company co-founder William "Whurley" Hurley told The Verge. "Perhaps there's a raid on a house and somebody runs. Why send somebody with a gun chasing him down the alley? The drone could just go and detain them and then you could just go and pick them up."
The drone could unleash a powerful surge of electricity on an unsuspecting criminal -- amounting to 80,000 volts -- with most current police stun guns delivering shocks of 50,000 volts.
Despite an "uncertain" future, the company thinks that drones may not only be used in police fieldwork, but security as well.
The company was reported to be working on a pepper-spray version as well, but they already have that capability. Why choose to demonstrate a stun gun drone first? Boyles cited safety as the major reason.
"Stun offers more control over environment and...is safer to demo. We can cut electrical charge at will, while pepper spray lingers. Effects of stun [wear] off faster too," he explained.
A future where drones may be see flying over cities may not be so far-fetched. Earlier this month, CNET reported that a federal judge on the National Transportation Safety Board ruled that commercial use of small drones was legal, despite years of Federal Aviation Administration saying it wasn't.
"We did this to start a conversation about their [drones'] role," Boyles explained.
Whether these types of drones will be legal in the future remains to be seen. If you ever see these hovering near you in the future, just say what the intern should have said: "Don't tase me, drone."