Drones have been getting a really bad rep of late, specially in the United Kingdom, after rogue operators managed to shut down operations at both Gatwick and Heathrow airports, effectively ruining Christmas for thousands of travelers and prompting widespread clamour for greater regulation against them.

Yet like all technology, it’s not the tech itself, but what you do with it that counts, and which makes it a force for evil – or for the greater good. The other side of all the fear and annoyance that drones can cause in the wrong hands are the life-saving applications that companies like Edgybees are working on.

The perspective of a drone and added AR overlay provides first responders improved situational awareness and open communication
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Drones have been getting a really bad rep of late, specially in the United Kingdom, after rogue operators managed to shut down operations at both Gatwick and Heathrow airports
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Edgybees was initially founded as AR video game enhancement software, then pivoted to specialize in rescue drone technology that collects geospatial data and overlays information onto video feeds to bring emergency responders accurate and real-time information.

The San Diego-based start-up partnered with HCL Technologies to host a series of live demonstrations to world leaders at the recent World Economic Forum 2019 in Davos, Switzerland. They showcased their intelligent video drone software application in search and rescue operations during flood emergencies. The presentations were part of the HCL 2030 Ecosystem Platform, which explored how humanity’s relationship with technology will evolve through the next decade of rapid innovation.

Edgybees was initially founded as AR video game enhancement software, then pivoted to specialize in rescue drone technology
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“This is a significant stride in introducing the profound impact that Augmented Reality has in shaping the outcome of public safety operations around the world,” says Adam Kaplan, CEO of Edgybees. “Overlaying data such as street names, individual locations, and key points of interest on real-time video footage, the solution provides context to emergency responders in critical situations. The unmatched perspective of a drone combined with the added overlay provides first responders improved situational awareness and open communication — vital components that can determine a successful first response scenario or search and rescue operation.”

The technology was developed in-house by Edgybees (which since being founded in 2017 has raised over $6.4M in funding) via HCL’s ETO Open Innovation Program in partnership with Consulate General of Israel to South India.  Its First Response command and control system for professional drone users in emergency response organizations is already operational in over 70 organizations in the US, Australia, Europe, and Israel.

The drones will be able to send real-time updates on the number of deployments possible in a single battery charge
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This is a significant stride in introducing the profound impact that augmented reality has in shaping the outcome of public safety operations around the world
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Kalyan Kumar, Corporate Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, HCL Technologies explains that with his company’s predictive technology, the drones will be able to send real-time updates on the number of deployments possible in a single battery charge as well as inform on external factors while the drone is in flight:

“Extending the enterprise-proven AIOPS platform into Drones Management is a powerful means to augment the automation of the entire stack. In the case of drones, AIOPS allows a level of predictive analytics and other functional data that substantially enhances the drone’s capabilities.”

It’s easy to see how, once refined, this type of functionality will be a game-changer in all manner disaster-relief situations, from earthquakes to tsunamis – in short, any type of time-critical situation where access is either difficult, overly risky, or impossible. Equipping first-responders with critical information in real-time could enable rescuers to save precious minutes, hours, or even days in reaching victims, for example, and to do so without compromising their own safety. So let’s not rush to outlaw drones just yet, but instead focus on keeping them in the competent hands of the good guys.

This article originally appeared on VRScout

AR Drone Technology That Can Help Save Lives via @alicebonasio https://t.co/4qnE1UJ68j pic.twitter.com/pJm056FEPk

— VRScout (@VRScout) January 28, 2019

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies our VR Consultancy service offers comprehensive support in strategic deployment of Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post The AR Drone That Can Help Save Lives appeared first on Tech Trends.

Christmas prep getting on top of you? Then maybe it’s time to look up to the skies for some help, and I don’t mean Santa (or Father Christmas depending on which side of the Atlantic you hail from). Drones Direct has just released a limited edition Chrismas Drone.

It features all the bells and whistles you might expect from a Christmas drone, such as a snow sprinkler, mistletoe kiss cam and tree-decorating attachments.

This video shows how the attachments, situated on the landing gear, can be used to assist with the fiddly job of deploying tinsel, lights and baubles.

This #Christmas drone has bells & whistles like snow sprinkler, mistletoe cam + tree-decorating attachments.
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This festive-themed version of the Phantom 4 comes with a 2km range and build-in collision avoidance technology, which is a good job considering that it doesn’t come cheap. The discounted price on the site is still £1199.00, so hardly a stocking-filler.

You could place the angel on top of the tree from the comfort of your armchair with the help of this Christmas drone
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That does, however, include a sprig of mistletoe and a 4K HD camera to capture those kissy moments. It’s either the ideal ice-breaker as Drones Direct claims, or it will give your gran a hell of a scare. Either way it will probably be a laugh. Whether or not that justifies the price tag, I’ll leave it for readers to decide, but I did at least enjoy the video, and it’s a silly time of year, so #MerryChristmas one and all!

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Yes, That’s a Christmas Drone appeared first on Tech Trends.

This drone is capable of catching a fish, albeit a rather small one…

Watching a man using a drone to catch a small live fish, I had one of those moments where you go: “WTF will they think up next?” I’ll admit it looks like fun though, if not exactly for the poor tiny fish who’s having an X-Files kind of day. At least the man gives the bewildered creature a kiss for his troubles before tossing it back in the water.

You can now use a drone to catch a (small) live fish
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And while I’m not sure whether that’s £15,000 worth of fun (that’s how much the DJI Phatom 4 Fishing Edition package retails for at Drones Direct) it does showcase an interesting use of the technology. You certainly won’t be catching big fish (the maximum weight of a catch the drone can bring back is 200 grams) but the drone can be operated up to 100m above water and controlled from a distance of 2km.

The inbuilt live camera feature means the drone can be used to locate and observe schools of fish without disturbing them, and it’s easy to see how that could prove really useful in wildlife conservation and photography.

You can use the live camera feature to observe schools of fish without disturbing them
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Just when you thought it was safe to get back in the water…

The fishing drone kit retails at £15,000
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Drones – the type you can buy, at least – are still largely cumbersome, fragile and expensive, but they are getting a lot better and cheaper, and the technology will continue to develop quickly over the next few years.

Drone technology is set to develop quickly over the next few years
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The key question is when we’ll reach the tipping point that will allow for mass-market adoption and sustainable commercial use cases. In places like Africa, where road infrastructure can often be poor or nonexistent and vast distances make it challenging to get supplies to isolated communities, drones could prove a real lifeline.

In places like Africa, drone delivery could prove a vital lifeline
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It’s easy to dismiss some of the hobbyist and early adopter uses of drones as a gimmick, but we should treat them more like prototypes. They are costly, small-scale proof-of-concept that give us a glimpse of what is to come and pave the way for widespread consumer usage. A world where your Amazon deliveries will literally fall from above, and ‘eyes in the sky’ will be a standard part of the toolkit in every area from law enforcement to agriculture and disaster management.

Your future Amazon deliveries could literally be dropping from the sky
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The drone market is set to hit 127 billion USD by 2020
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The UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) market will be worth an estimated 6 Billion USD by 2020, but the overall drone market is set to hit a staggering 127 billion according to PWC . This includes the anti-drone market, which is expected to grow to over a Billion USD in the same period.

The map below shows how varied and vast the drone technology ecosystem already is, and it’s worth bearing in mind that – like VR and 3D Printing, we’ve only just started scratching the surface of what this tech will enable. In future, you really could be sending your robot out to catch a fresh fish for supper, but unless you’ve got a really small appetite don’t go ditching your fishing rod quite yet…

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Fishes With Robots: Drones Put New Spin on Fly-Fishing appeared first on Tech Trends.