Monday, July 14, 2014

Garden Drones

Since I was a child I've always wondered why no one builds scarecrows that actually move. After all, animals aren't stupid and if a man stands still long enough they just figure he can't move. So yesterday after some wild birds flew in and wiped out a a bunch of my tomatoes I got to thinking about it again. You see, other than cannons and guns there are no means to chase birds out of gardens and fields.

I'm thinking that smart business and government leaders in a city like Greensboro in a state where agriculture is still our #1 industry would see this as an opportunity to manufacture a product locally that could be used by home gardeners and real farmers nationwide. Worldwide even.

Imagine a quiet, solar powered, plug-in drone that stands guard over your gardens and fields 24/7 sitting motionless on its charging station until its built in motion detectors detect movement inside the garden or field. At that point it flies into the air and buzzes around flashing LED lights just long enough to scare the pesky bird, rabbit, squirrel, deer, opossum, racoons away before returning back to its charging station. It wouldn't even have to be programmable-- just ship it with markers that go on the corners of the area it is supposed to patrol. When it sees a marker it knows to turn around.

Of course it would need a switch to shut it off so it doesn't buzz the gardener but that seems simple enough.

I'm sure there are folks in Greensboro who could build such a device and a factory making tiny drones such as these would soon be shipping worldwide employing lots of high tech Greensboro workers. You know, if Greensboro only had leaders who could make things happen.