This Gesture Recognition System Could Help Special Forces Control Drones in the Field

Most of what we, the civilian public, think about the reality of Special Forces operations is probably pure fiction that we’ve picked up from movies, TV, books, and video games. But there are two aspects that the fiction most likely gets right: that they need to move quickly and that they need to act quietly. Small multirotor drones could be very useful in the field, but in order for them to be practical they can’t sacrifice mobility or stealth. To facilitate their usage in Special Forces operations, researchers have developed a gesture recognition system for easily controlling drones.

This gesture control system was developed by a team of researchers from Germany’s Berlin Institute of Technology (Technische Universität Berlin) with the goal of making drones easier to use in the field. It isn’t hard to imagine why a small multirotor drone would be useful to Special Forces in the field. A drone positioned over the location where they’re operating could provide extremely valuable real time surveillance. It could even be possible to use a drone as a weapon, to extend communications range, or to map an environment. But anyone who has piloted a drone knows that it usually requires a bulky controller and your full attention — all while generating a whole lot of noise.

The issue of noise is already being addressed by technological improvements, and even a regular consumer drone is hard to hear if it’s high enough up. This gesture control system can help with the rest. To pilot a drone with this system, a Special Forces operative would simply need to wear a small ring that contains common sensors like an IMU, accelerometer, and gyroscope. By moving their hand and fingers in specific motions, they can tell the drone to take off, land, move in a particular direction, return to home, and so on. The pilot could easily perform those gestures while performing other tasks in the field — giving them the benefits of a drone without any of the drawbacks. The team has only demonstrated this system with drone simulations, but it would be a trivial matter to implement it in real life.