Drone selfies for action sports (video)

17 กรกฎาคม 2557

New drone follows you while you motorcycle, mountain bike, rock climb, snowboard and captures it all on video.

TECHNOLOGY

Drones take flight into a world of possibilities

AFP News agency

The six-rotor HEXO+ drone equipped with a video camera is being billed as the first small drone for the mass market. It's also a good example of the many ways in which automation will take to the sky as unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, become part of daily life in the not-too-distant future. Developed by a French start up, Squadrone System, the drone is scheduled to hit stores in May 2015 with a planned retail price of US$899.

One target market for the drone is extreme sports enthusiasts looking for a way to document their every move. Like a well-trained dog, the HEXO+ follows you faithfully wherever you go. But it doesn't walk besides you -- it's airborne. The company's co-founder Xavier Delerue is a former world snowboard champion who makes snowboard films and started using drones a few years ago. The new venture has attracted $1 million in Kickstarter funding. Users activate the drone with a smartphone app, then let it fly a few meters (yards) behind them, recording their every twist and turn, up to a top speed of 70 kilometers an hour.

A Russian fast-food chain, Ilya Farafonov, has already unveiled its first pizza delivery drone. Others are planning a network of drones that can bring food and medical supplies into conflict zones or areas hit by natural disaster, saving people's life when a mother needs medicine, or a child needs medicine, for example. Since December, the United Nations has used drones in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to monitor rebel activity along the borders with Uganda and Rwanda. Drones could even be used to monitor body-temperatures of whole populations to hunt killer disease outbreaks.

Other applications of drones include drone journalism, gathering news and photos by drone, stunning aerial photography of real estate that sales people can use to make sales as well as agricultural uses such as evaluate soil conditions, guide tractors or assess the most effective way to spread fertiliser. A French start up Flyterra uses drones to maximise harvests and the company's drone fleet can also be used to inspect mines, dams and windmills. In culture and the arts, the Australian I-Drone uses a video projector to turn outdoor walls in Melbourne into movie screens after dark. And in Japan, a dance troupe has presented scenes featuring three dancers dancing with drones.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/tech/computer/420994/drones-take-flight-into-a-world-of-possibilities