By now we are used to images of snipers on hotel rooftops protecting the world's great-est-and-good-est from the evils of average-joe-ness...
But this year it appears there is a new foe - the drone - and a new weapon to tackle that foe...
h/t @alaashahine
While the shoulder-mounted anti-drone gun pictured above in Davos does not appear to be one we have seen before, as Engadget detailed previously, there are numerous systems built to take down wayward or dangerous drones, but they tend to have one big catch: you need to be relatively close to the drone, which could be scary if the robotic aircraft is packing explosives. DroneShield thinks it can help. It's introducing the DroneGun, a jammer that disables drone signals (including GPS and GLONASS positioning) from as far as 1.2 miles away. Like most rivals, it doesn't destroy the target drone -- it just forces the vehicle to land or return to its starting point. Anti-drone teams can not only disable threats from a safe distance, but potentially locate their pilots.
It's not the lightest machine at about 13 pounds, but it's portable enough to be usable by one person. You don't need technical training, either, so it's easy for security staff to use.
Whether or not you see the DroneGun in action is another matter. It's not FCC-certified as we write this, so you can't legally operate one in the US unless you're with the government. Provided it's approved, though, it could help take down drones at airports, protect soldiers against drone bombs and otherwise help in situations where it's simply not possible to get close.