Tag: Drones

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How Amazon inspired birth-control drones

Image: Drone in Ghana
Aerial vehicles are used to deliver medical supplies in Ghana. (Credit: Drones for Development)

When U.N. health experts were trying to come up with a way to deliver contraceptives to women in hard-to-reach areas of Ghana, they took a page from Amazon’s drone delivery playbook.

Their pilot project, known as Dr. One, was reportedly inspired in late 2014 by the Seattle-based online retailer’s plans for aerial package deliveries.

“We thought, ‘Hang on a minute. We can use this for something else!” Kanyanta Sunkutu, a South African public health specialist with the U.N. Population Fund, was quoted as saying in The Huffington Post’s report about the project.

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FAA goes long with Super Bowl no-drone zone

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The FAA is spreading the word about the Super Bowl “no-drone zone.” (Credit: FAA)

No means no when it comes to the Federal Aviation Administration’s no-drone zone for Super Bowl Sunday.

Not even CBS, which is broadcasting the big football game between the Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos starting at 3:30 p.m. PT Sunday, will be allowed to send unmanned aerial vehicles into the red zone, the FAA says.

The red zone is unusually large this weekend: It extends across a 74-mile-wide circle centered on Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., in the heart of Silicon Valley. The FAA’s temporary flight restrictions block out the airspace to a height of 18,000 feet from 2 to 11:59 p.m. PT.

The FAA typically restricts the airspace around sporting events with a seating capacity of 30,000 spectators or more, but for the Super Bowl, the no-drone zone is bigger than usual: 37 statute miles (32 nautical miles) in radius, as opposed to the standard 3.5 statute miles. That’s because the Super Bowl is considered a “special security event.”

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Google tests Internet drones at spaceport

Image: Titan drone
Titan Aerospace, which was acquired by Google in 2014, has been working on solar-powered drones that could provide high-speed Internet access from a high altitude. (Credit: Titan file)

The latest twist in the race to provide high-speed Internet access from above comes in the form of a report in The Guardian, to the effect that a hush-hush Google project called SkyBender is testing drones in the skies above Spaceport America in New Mexico.

The Guardian says it’s obtained documents laying out how high-altitude drones could relay gigabits of data per second, using millimeter-wave, phased-array transmissions. Jacques Christophe Rudell, an electrical engineering professor at the University of Washington, is quoted as saying that “the huge advantage is access to new spectrum, because the existing cellphone spectrum is overcrowded.”

Millimeter-wave communications could open the way for 5G wireless service that’s 40 times faster than the current 4G LTE standard. But millimeter-wave signals have a relatively short range: According to The Guardian, Project SkyBender would have to use thousands of transceiver-equipped aerial vehicles to knit together the network.

The system is reportedly being tested using Aurora Flight Sciences’ Centaur optionally piloted aircraft as well as the solar-powered drones made by Titan Aerospace, which was acquired by Google in 2014 after a fling with Facebook.

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Get a drone’s-eye view of global destinations

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“View From Above” shows the Space Needle and a Seattle sunset. (Credit: Emirates Airline)

Seattle is one of the stars of the show in “View From Above,” a series of aerial videos shot by drones over 19 destinations for Emirates Airline and the Boeing Co.

The Emerald City looks like the gorgeous place it is, with awesome views of the waterfront and skyline, Gasworks Park and the University District, ferries plying Elliott Bay, plus mountains, lakes and waterways galore.

But that’s not the only reason why Seattle made the list: Because Boeing is one of the project’s sponsors, the aerospace giant’s facilities around Puget Sound are featured as well.

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Amazon’s drone plan leaves issues up in the air

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One of the Amazon Prime Air prototypes has horizontal and vertical rotors. (Amazon photo)

How much will it cost to get a 30-minute drone delivery from Amazon Prime Air? A newly published interview with Amazon executive Paul Misener suggests that the pricing question and other key issues have yet to be figured out.

In the interview with Yahoo Tech columnist David Pogue, Amazon’s vice president for global public policy provides a detailed run-through of the Seattle-based online retailer’s plan for aerial delivery dominance.

Many of the details have been laid out before. Others appear to remain up in the air.

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Lily’s $34M boom signals age of ‘selfie drones’

Image: Lily flying camera
Lily’s “flying camera” is designed to be thrown into the air to take selfies. (Credit: Lily)

If you ever needed evidence that “selfie drones” are the hot thing for 2016, you can find it in last week’s reports from the International CES show that a startup named Lily Robotics has collected 60,000 pre-orders for its flying camera, amounting to a potential $34 million payoff.

Supporting evidence came in the form of other selfie drones that were shown off in Las Vegas, including the Qualcomm-backed Ying quadcopter and the crowdfunded Onagofly nano-drone. Still other selfie-copters are waiting in the wings, including the tethered Fotokite Phi, the watch-controlled Hawk and the Nixie wearable drone.

Selfie drones are designed to follow you at a standoff distance and take videos, guided by your smartphone’s signal or a homing device you can tuck in somewhere.

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Human-sized drone unveiled – but is it a drone?

Image: Ehang 184 drone
The Ehang 184 drone has been tested in China. (Credit: Ehang)

Look! Up in the air! It’s a drone, it’s a plane, it’s … Super-Quadcopter!

Droves of drones were unveiled this week at the International CES show in Las Vegas, but the one that made the biggest splash was arguably the Chinese-made Ehang 184, a remote-controlled quadcopter that’s so big it can accommodate a 220-pound passenger.

Guangzhou-based Ehang says the electric-powered, 440-pound craft can be charged up in two to four hours and fly for 23 minutes. It’s designed to fly at an altitude of about a quarter-mile at speeds of up to 62 mph, but if you push it, the vehicle can go as high as 11,000 feet.  It even has air conditioning and a reading light.

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FAA says drone signup list has hit 181,000

Image: Parrot Disco
The Parrot Disco is one of the new drones introduced at CES 2016. (Parrot photo)

The Federal Aviation Administration’s chief says he’s happy to see about 181,000 Internet users register recreational drones in less than three weeks’ time – and to help new drone owners, the agency has unveiled a smartphone app that shows no-fly zones.

Even if there’s a chance you might own a drone someday, you could save $5 by taking the FAA up on its introductory offer of free registration through Jan. 20. (That’s what I did.) The FAA requires all recreational drones heavier than a half-pound to be registered by Feb. 19, but the registration website actually registers people and their contact information rather than the hardware. No drones required.

FAA officials hurried up to establish a registration system because they were concerned about a series of high-profile drone crashes last year – including an intrusion on White House grounds. They tallied hundreds of occasions when drones interfered with air traffic. The Computer Technology Association estimates that about 400,000 drones were sold during the holiday season, and the FAA wants to get a better handle on all those flying robots.

During today’s drone panel at the International CES show in Las Vegas, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said he was “very encouraged by the numbers” that have been racked up since the registration website went live on Dec. 21.

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Social-friendly Ying joins the drone parade

Image: Qualcomm drone
Qualcomm has developed a Snapdragon Flight computing platform for drones. (Qualcomm photo)

China’s largest Internet service portal, Tencent, is teaming up with chipmaker Qualcomm and drone-maker Zerotech to field the Ying drone, a flying robot that’s optimized for online sharing.

“This drone allows you to fly around, capture video and then share it directly with social media sites,” Qualcomm CEO Steven Mollenkopf said today during a sneak peek at the International CES show in Las Vegas.

Ying is built around Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Flight control platform, which can capture and correct video in 1080p or 720p resolution, depending on the perspective. The video can be uploaded or streamed directly to Tencent’s social media platforms, Wexin (a.k.a. WeChat) and QQ, the three companies said in a news release.

Snapdragon Flight is an array of circuitry that’s designed specifically for recreational drones and robotic applications. Qualcomm says the package offers GPS and 4K video as well as robust capabilities for autonomous or smartphone-controlled flight.

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Intel goes deeper into drones with AscTec deal

Image: AscTec Firefly
Ascending Technologies’ Firefly drone is a showcase for Intel’s RealSense technology. (Intel photo)

Intel says it’s acquiring Ascending Technologies, its German partner in the drone business, in a deal that demonstrates how quickly robotic aerial vehicles are becoming an important computing platform.

In a blog post announcing the acquisition, Intel’s Josh Walden said the move is part of his company’s effort to “integrate the computing, communications, sensor and cloud technology required to make drones smarter and more connected.”

Ascending Technologies’ drones have long been a showcase for Intel’s RealSense control technology, earning them kudos at last year’s International CES show. Walden said the Ascending Technologies team would continue supporting their current customers while collaborating with Intel engineers to develop drones that can fly “with more awareness of their environments.”

The terms of the deal were not announced. Ascending Technologies is based in Krailling, near Munich, and has about 75 employees who will now be asked to join Intel. To celebrate the acquisition, AscTec programmed an LED-equipped droneto write the message “Happy to Join” … followed by the Intel logo.

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