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Intern volunteers to be zapped by stun-gun drone at South by Southwest festival

"If you’ve ever had a muscle cramp, like your calf cramped up -- it’s like that except it's your whole body and there's a vibrating sensation," intern says.

By Evan Bleier
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An intern for a creative technology studio volunteered to get zapped by a drone that was equipped with a stun-gun during the South By Southwest festival and the 26-year-old reported he felt "pretty good" about it.

Chaotic Moon intern Jackson Sheehan was tasered by the Chaotic Unmanned Personal Intercept Drone (C.U.P.I.D.) in order to help the company draw attention to the potential of the device.

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"You could make something comparable for few thousand dollars," Chaotic Moon chief innovation officer William Hurley told ABC News. "It would be manual and not autonomous. This isn’t something of a military-industrial complex budget. These are hobbyist-level budgets."

The drone can let loose a surge of electricity that can reach 80,000 volts; most current stun-guns only reach 50,000.

Sheehan certainly earned his compensation.

"If you’ve ever had a muscle cramp, like your calf cramped up -- it’s like that except it's your whole body and there's a vibrating sensation. It pulses. I wouldn’t describe it as painful -- you’re immobile,” Sheehan said. "I’ve never had that experience. I've had it in a calf or quad but never my whole body at once.”

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The demonstration lasted 30 seconds, but it took about three weeks to prepare.

"Demonstrations like these can seem unsettling, but they help us prepare for the future instead of react to it," said Chaotic Moon CEO Ben Lamm. "The technology is already here and seeing it in action like this pushes us to have the conversations we need to have about how to deploy drones responsibly."

[ABC News] [CBS News]

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