Richard Lai covered Hover Camera – a personal drone that follows you around:

• Hover Camera recognizes your face and then follows you about taking photos or videos as you engage in your daily activities.
• It works indoors and outdoors and can, for example, follow you while you’re out for a run.
• Features such as gesture control and orbiting mode are expected soon.
• Unfortunately, its limited to about eight minutes of flying – though the makers have gone out of their way to make the battery easily replaceable while you’re out and about.
• And the $600 price tag is steep. But once the technology improves perhaps we can all expect to have little personal assistant drones, following us around, helping us out, and documenting our lives.

Read more over here.

Source: Engadget

Arthur Holland Michel writes that a new era of graffiti has dawned upon us:

• KATSU an (in)famous graffiti artist armed a drone with a can of spray paint and had it vandalize Kendall Jenner’s face on a billboard.
• KATSU is planning to release a line of drones that other graffiti artists can use to tag things in difficult to reach places.
• At the moment it’s hard to get the drone to draw something coherent since you have to keep it steady on three axes.
• Soon however the drones could be pre-programmed with the illustration to be drawn on the target, and then left to autonomously do the tagging.

Read more and see a video here.

Source: Wired

Kelsey D. Atherton wrote about how non-state actors – such as terrorist groups and pirates – may soon start to operate:

• The big advantage that conventional forces have that even prominent non-state actors such as ISIS have not been able to replicate is access to an air force.
• Yet drone technology could soon change that. It has the potential of turning even small fishing boats into literal aircraft carriers.
• These could be used, for example, by pirates to perform surveillance before choosing to attack a ship.
• They could also be used to deliver heavier weapons on board a target ship, making it easier for pirates to quickly board.
• The solution to this may be lasers that can melt down incoming drones.

Read more here.

Source: Popular Science

Plans are being drawn up to build the first civilian drone airport in the world writes Lily Kuo. The country responsible for this next generation infrastructure? Rwanda:

• Landlocked Rwanda is known as the “land of a thousand hills” due to its rough terrain.
• The three building drone airport is expected to be able to send drones to 50% of the country.
• The primary focus is on delivering emergency medical supplies to rural areas. It will also be capable of delivering commercial goods much like a postal service.
• The airport will contain a facility to produce more drones, and a medical center.
• If the port is successful then project sponsors claim that dozens more could be built around the country.
• True to Rwanda’s reputation as a tech friendly hub, its liberal policies on drones is in stark contrast to other African countries such as South Africa and Kenya which have heavily regulated the use of drones.

Read more about the project and see photos here.

Source: Quartz

Via: Marginal Revolution

We’ve previously covered the ambulance drone. Greg Kumparak wrote about its younger brother, the lifeguard drone:

• Project Ryptide is a self-inflating life preserver ring.
• It can attach to most common drones. A lifeguard can then control it using their phone and have it drop the life preserver next to a drowning person.
• The ring will automatically inflate upon contact with water.
• The system will be on kickstarter and is expected to cost about $99 (drone not included).

Read more about it here.

Source: Techcrunch

We’ve covered both drones and ambulances in the past. Our interest was piqued, then, when one inventor put the two together. NDTV reported:

• A student has developed a drone that can transport lifesaving medical equipment at 100 km/h.
• When an emergency call is received the drone can be dispatched to the patient’s location using the GPS location from the phone of either the victim or a bystander.
• Live audio and video feeds provide crucial information to doctors working remotely.
• The drone is currently configured to transport a defibrillator to a patient, but it could be equipped with other items such as an oxygen mask or insulin injection.
• Each drone is expected to cost approximately €15,000

Read about the drone, details of how it works, a cost benefit analysis, and more over here.

Source: NDTV

Selfies are the current big thing. Drones are meant to be the next one. Put them together and you get the selfie drone. Sonali Kohli wrote:

• Nixie is a concept drone that you wear around your wrist.
• When it’s time to take a photo you launch the drone by flicking your wrist. The more power you flick it with, the further up it goes.
• It will then snap a few photos, and land back on your wrist.
• The creators are seeking $500,000 to bring the device to production. If they’re successful they intend to release it next year and sell it for less than $1,000.

Read more about the idea, and see a video with more details about it here.

Source: Quartz

Amazon has asked the government for permission to experiment with drones for package delivery. Dan Frommer uncovered their true motives:

• Amazon’s drone campaign is great for recruitment. Talented individuals who would normally choose to go to Microsoft or Facebook might opt for Amazon instead because of the drone program.
• It is a great bargaining tactic when it is negotiating rates with its current shipping providers. It can threaten to make them obsolete by launching its own rival service.
• The program is also giving Amazon a lot of favourable coverage, keeping it on top of people’s minds.
• Finally, some day many years into the future, drone deliveries might make a lot of business sense. Amazon is just getting into the gig early.

Read more here.

Source: Quartz