Polly Want a Parrot Drone?
-By Hashim Desai | [email protected]
Parrot drones, such as the Bebop 2 with Skycontroller 2 have become so advanced and lower cost that they are starting to be used in common application to make life easier and of course more entertaining. The Parrot Bebop drone sports a 14MP camera with a ton of processing capabilities to keep the drone and the image rock steady. The starting price is $600 US.
The drone is packed with sensors including a gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetometer. A MIMO Wi-Fi booster can allow for a range of 2km. Using an iPad as a controller, or a phone or Android device allows for recording and wide angle viewing.
The developer API can now let people write their own software to control the Parrot drones. An amateur photographer could use the stable camera to snap hard-to-reach photos. Or perhaps film a stunt scene by programming the drone’s camera to follow a specific object. The possibilities are endless, and while the drone has many real-life applications, it will certainly lead to hours of fun.
More powerful drones are also being closely looked at for last-mile delivery of packages. With software code that is already smart enough to direct the drones to pick up and drop off their loads, companies like Amazon are already interesting in testing and using these drone services to enhance their service and delight the customer.