New Quadcopters Arrive Just as US Eases Its Ban on Camera Drones
Published October 1, 2014
In an interesting development for the film world, a Toronto startup just began a campaign to send small, lightweight cameras attached to drones into the air. DreamQii, the company behind their cameradrone christened the PlexiDrone, launched an Indiegogo campaign last Wednesday hoping to raise $100,000. The PlexiDrone comes outfitted with a small socket designed to lift a variety of consumer video hardware into the air, ranging from simple point-and-shoot cameras to GoPros. The drone was designed to grant the camera 360 degrees of vision without any components of the drone getting in the way. Weighing in at less than three pounds and boasting software to have the PlexiDrone intelligently avoid obstacles, DreamQii is confident in the safety of their drone. Their campaign launched less than a week after the FAA granted six film production crews the right to fly drones when shooting films or televisions, hopefully hearkening a new, commercially viable purpose for drones in modern society.
Drones could be used on North Dakota oil fields
Published October 4, 2014
In a similar vein, the FAA has granted oil company ConocoPhillips and British Petroleumto use UAVs in Alaskan oil fields. Companies in North Dakota such as Zach Lamppa hope to receive the same permissions. Currently, the long underground pipelines are checked for leaks and damages periodically, using a variety of tools such as manned flyovers, physical inspection, or more rarely fiber-optic warning systems. However, many individuals in the field feel these tools are archaic. Utilization of sensors attached to drones could potentially increase both the frequency and the accuracy of searching for early signs of problems, both preventing environmental disasters of oil spills as well as protecting the company’s finances. Whatever the reason, utilization of drones beyond military and police work has begun to express itself more and more.
Images pulled from articles.
