The Drone Wars

Featured Image

If CES 2015 was made into a movie it would have been a horror movie called Attack of the Drones. Drones were everywhere – and behind each of them was a recent college grad with a joystick controller.

If CES 2016 was made into a movie it would have been a sequel – Attack of the Intelligent Drones.

CES 2016 featured drones that roll, fly, hop, hover, and hang out – only this time many roamed completely free from control any human overlord.

 Qualcomm introduced the latest iteration of its Snapdragon Flight which gives drones the ability to learn about their environment as they fly through a combination of machine learning and flight control.

Starship Technologies showed off its fleet of autonomous delivery drones.

 

Drones are changing the way we view our world.

And the thing that makes drone autonomy possible? Cameras.

Most drones now are birthed with cameras built-right-in. Why? The cameras assist operators during flight (live streaming), capture high-res stunning videos and images, and – most importantly – give the machines sight – a prerequisite in order to be able to navigate the world free of meddling mortals.

Leading video chip manufacturerAmbarella showed off the chops of its Flying Cameras chipsets. Powerful. lightweight processors capable of capturing, analyzing, and streaming video.

We also glimpsed the beginnings of software platforms that seek to give operators the ability to control and monitor many drones at once.

 

 

So what does that mean for Nx?

Given Nx Witness’s flexible grid user interface its ability to integrate with any 3rd party device or system, and the similarity between PTZ camera and drone flight controls we see a future where a fleet of drones could be launched, managed and monitored all from Nx Witness.

Have an idea for how you see A.I. integrated into Nx Witness? Submit an idea at http://support.networkoptix.com/hc/en-us/community/topics

Share this post!

Tags: Whitepaper