Sounds can knock drones out of the sky

Knocking a drone out of the sky is sometimes possible using an invisible weapon—sound.

The vulnerability in some drones comes from a natural property of all objects—resonance. Take a wine glass: if a sound is created that matches the natural resonant frequency of the glass, the resulting effects could cause it to shatter.

The same principle applies to components inside drones. Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in Daejon, South Korea, analyzed the effects of resonance on a crucial component of a drone, its gyroscope. Their paper will be presented next week at the 24th USENIX Security Symposium in Washington, D.C.

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