Going back a few weeks we all knew about drones as an unmanned aircraft used by the defense forces in their operations. Bottom line was we associated and identified drones as exclusive defense properties and an alien gadget for the common citizens. But with the recent rounds of tech innovations making way into our daily lives, it does not seem far away when a drone would be like just another home appliance. A few days back in our article titled ‘Google Drones In Ecommerce’ we had illustrated how drones are making their inroads in the ecommerce segment doubling up as delivery agents. To our surprise the article also happened to receive overwhelming readership and page view close to 4699 in a matter of just a week. This clearly indicates a trend of growing popularity of the drones among the common mass. In the recent CES 2015 event which is meant to be a consumer electronic exhibition has been staging the display of drones from the global tech major Qualcomm (QCOM, Financial).
Hence it is clear that drones are no longer exclusive to the defense systems but are slowly but surely on their way into our daily lives. Let us take a dig at what are the drones from the tech heavyweight up to in the CES event.
Qualcomm drones at the show
Qualcomm Research is showing off its latest innovation in the field of robotics the Snapdragon Cargo, which is a flying and rolling robot built around the Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, reported a tech news agency. The Cargo also houses its own integrated flight controller.
The Snapdragon Cargo is powered by a multi-functional computing platform that involves hardware as well as software platforms. The low-power Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC is using a smart multi-tasking process of multi-core processing, wireless communications, sensor integration, spatial positioning and real-time input-output for a variety of robotics applications.
The Snapdragon Cargo prototype robot is capable of movement on the ground as well as off the ground in air using its own devices to map its position in space. The Snapdragon Cargo deploys Computer Vision technologies to enable the robot to perceive its position in space and the surrounding environment.
The progress of drone technology
Qualcomm is working on Machine Vision Research software development kit (SDK) which comes with key computer vision technologies. The three main technologies include Visual Inertial Odometry (VIO) which tracks 3D position and orientation using sensors and cameras; Vision-only Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (VSLAM) which tracks the 3D position and orientation in texture-rich environments and Depth From Stereo cameras (DFS) which provides enough information to the robot to avoid collisions.
Earlier today, Intel (INTC, Financial) showcased a flying drone that uses its RealSense camera technology to perform in a smarter way. Using the RealSense technology, these drones can build 3D maps of their surroundings and then automatically adjust themselves to avoid hazards and objects. It looks like we are going to see a lot more action in the research and development process of the flying-drone technology in the recent future.
Market Vibes
Previously it was Google (GOOG, Financial) and Amazon (AMZN, Financial) trying to introduce the drones into logistics, and now Qualcomm and Intel have gone a step further in the direction trying to make the drone technology picture perfect and perfecting them to make an entry of drones in common life. If drones come into existence, it will benefit several sectors like logistics, hospitality, construction and industrial sector to name a few. However the main hurdle that seems to be imminent is government approval towards putting drones into commercial usage and allowing them to cris-cross the cities and towns. If the tech bigwigs involved in the research and development functions of the drones can work out the equations with the authorities, then there will be an instant boom in the demand for drones and in such a scenario these tech companies developing the drones can experience flying colors in terms of business numbers. As investors if we want to take the advantage of the expected demand boom we will have to keep a close watch over the reactions of the government authorities towards the drone technology and take a call post that. So stay tuned with us for any new development in the drone arena.
