Drone News – Week 6

More exciting and interesting news on drones are up this week including the latest about the now becoming popular ‘selfie drones’ as well as new technologies that aim to make flying safer and more secure. Read on to find out more about this week’s highlights.

AUSTRALIA

1. The federal government will shortly be facing a string of complex technical and political decisions, with the development of proposals to adapt local mobile phone networks as a continent-wide air traffic control system for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

In the US, Qualcomm and AT&T have announced a partnership to test UAVs on 4G LTE networks. In Australia, earlier this year Telstra revealed it was taking place in Queensland drone trials that leveraged its mobile network. (December 1)

2. If you’re a drone pilot who wants to fly a drone somewhere you shouldn’t, there isn’t a whole lot anyone can do right now to stop you, due to a variety of legal complications that govern drones in flight and jamming equipment. But that hasn’t stopped an industry of potential anti-drone solutions from springing up, with products like last year’s Drone Defender, or DroneShield’s new Dronegun. (November 30)

3. DRONE technology has long been tipped to be the next big thing in consumer electronics but there’s yet to really be one that breaks through — but Zerotech’s Dobby Drone hopes to change that.

The small pocket-sized device could be the Goldilocks of the consumer drone market. It’s compact size and relatively affordable price point has the company hoping Aussie tech heads will embrace the product just in time for Christmas.

It’s marketed as a selfie drone, and anything that tries to do away with the selfie stick is surely doing the world a favour. (November 30)

INTERNATIONAL

1. Apple Inc. plans to use drones and new indoor navigation features to improve its Maps service and catch longtime leader Google, according to people familiar with the matter. (December 1)

2. In the past few years, the drone market has grown from its infancy to one of the hottest industries in the world. So hot, in fact, that PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts the global drone market will be worth $127 billion by 2020.

But one of the biggest questions remains how established business will utilize drones. To solve that problem, Colin Guinn started Hangar, a software company focused on bridging the gap between drones and traditional businesses. (December 1)

3. Yes, toy drone maker Propel has negotiated the strict Lucasfilm licensing regime to create official quadcopter versions of Tie Fighters, X-Wing Starfighters, and even the Speeder Bike. First revealed in July, a few prototypes arrived in San Francisco this week for a press demonstration ahead of the start of public sales on Friday. (December 1)

4. Researchers at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have 3D printed a ready-to-fly drone with embedded electronics using an aerospace-grade material. (December 1)

5. British startup Altitude Angel has, in conjunction with air traffic control service NATS, launched an air-traffic-as-a-service app for drone operators.

Drone Assist “presents drone pilots with an interactive map of areas of airspace used by commercial air traffic”, according to Altitude Angel. The theory is that the large number of reported drone near-misses can be reduced by responsible operators on the hunt for up-to-date traffic information for their local areas. (December 1)

6. GoPro to layoff 200 employees and shut down some of its services following Karma drone recall. (December 1)

7. AirSelfie is an innovated flying device that has 5 MP camera for taking high-quality shots and videos. It sets no limits in taking HD photos and videos of yourself, your friends and the places and moments you’re in. This device will leave other selfie tools in the dust because of the features it offers. (December 1)

8. ‘Dronejacking’ to become next big security threat as hackers look to the sky. (November 29)