Drone Technology
Which is Better: Open Source or Proprietary Drone Software?
Just like Google vs. Apple When the Apple iPad first appeared on the market in 2010, I didn’t jump in to buy one. I didn’t own an iPhone, I had a company-issued Blackberry, so I wasn’t motivated. Besides, I figured there would be a better model a year or so later. So I waited. By … Read more
The Business of Drones: A Tale of Two Cities
The year was 1775. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the … Read more
The Democratization of Aerial Photography
From earliest times, humans have held a fascination with the “bird’s eye” view from above. Therefore it’s not surprising that, not long after the invention of photography, pioneers began to turn their attention to the aerial view. The first to successfully accomplish this feat was Gaspar Felix Tournachon or “Nadar” in 1858 when he photographed … Read more
Drones Revolution Means Big Data Cloud Services
I love drones. No, not the big high-altitude ones like the Predator Drone, I mean the smaller low-altitude ones like Aeryon, Flexrotor, Phantom, and PrecisionHawk, that do everything from 3D mapping, to cinematography, to forensic inspections, to precision agriculture. I love making, programming, and piloting small unmanned aerial vehicles (sUAVs), and over the past several years I have … Read more
Making Sense of Drones
What do you think when you hear the word drone or unmanned aerial system (UAS) or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)? Drones come in all sizes now. Most of you know about the big high altitude Defense related ones like the Predator Drone, but you may not know about the many smaller low altitude ones for Civil and … Read more