J
Jeff Causey
Guest
Earlier this year Qualcomm announced they were planning to get into the development of drone technology, including drone-specific processors, in order to gain a solid foothold in the market and to move it ahead. That seems like a smart move given the growth the market for drones is experiencing. The company plans to show off their new Snapdragon Flight reference design at CES 2016 and has released a teaser video for some of the technologies they are working on.
According to Qualcomm, they hope their work on drone technology will help bring the price point for a 4K camera drone down to the $300 to $400 range, opening up the market to many more buyers than what is currently available in the market’s $1,200 range. Another challenge in getting buyers to take the jump is addressing the battery life, which is quite short averaging about 20 minutes at present. Qualcomm thinks they can push this up to the 45 to 60 minute range.
Improving the hardware and price point is only part of the puzzle though as ease of use will help make the devices even more popular. In this regard, Qualcomm is working on the implementation of camera sensors to help drones avoid collisions autonomously. A side benefit of extra cameras and sensors will be the ability to start mapping out 3D spaces. They are also working on technology that will give users the ability to plot out a flight path on a mobile device and then let the drone follow that instead of trying to manually fly the device.
You can check out the video released by Qualcomm earlier this week below and we will be on the lookout for more at CES 2016.
Click here to view the embedded video.Come comment on this article: Qualcomm Snapdragon Flight hopes to create buzz at CES 2016
Visit TalkAndroid for Android news, Android guides, and much more!
News via TalkAndroid