Gadgetory

when the verge began covering drones three years ago we got a lot of grief about using that word drone these were just remote control toys people would say they couldn't fly themselves at CES the last two years we finally saw drones that could sense and avoid obstacles but these were R&D projects and tech demos so far not gadgets you could actually buy well that all changes today with the introduction of DG eyes newest drone the Phantom 4 you know this is kind of the drone that we've been waiting for there were drones that could help you fly that could take off and land or return home then there were drones that could follow you or orbit around you but they were always blind to their surroundings if it was following you down a ski slope and there was a tree in the way like the drone doesn't know about that it's just going to go right into it so this is a little different before when the Phantom was following me it was using GPS so it was following my phone which was attached to the remote now it's using computer vision identifying me as a subject and then following based on that that's the real difference is follow me is not following me it's following the signal whereas active track is actually creating that image of the person recognizing the 3d image that changes because you don't look the same when you turn your head to the side is when you do looking forward or when you're walking look different too but the phantom 4 is smart enough to recognize that it's still you and stay locked onto you this is really the implementation that we dreamt of which is a combination of computer vision that's going to keep the subject completely in frame and also active obstacle avoidance so it senses the error environment around it and will make intelligent decisions to avoid collision avoiding crashes is a great new feature obviously but DJI is using the computer vision technology to do more than just that a new feature called active track for example but you trace a circle around a subject you want to keep in frame the phantoms on-board computer builds a 3d model of that subject and then automatically follows it for you the Phantom 4 accomplish this feat with the help of three extra cameras two in the front and one below and two ultrasonic sensors it has also added a second onboard computer for processing and understanding the data it's ingesting about the environment it's the first consumer unit to come to market that can actually see the world around it accordingly a big step towards a truly autonomous aircraft the new phantom isn't cheaper than previous versions in fact at 13 99 it's more expensive than the top-tier phantom 3 was at release but the pitch from DJI to consumers especially beginners is different this time it normally when people ask me this is my first drone what should I buy I would say buy the cheap one learn how to fly I'm getting to a point with this craft despite what you know you were talking about slightly above the Phantom 3 professional in price when it comes out with those autonomous flight modes a big beginner can fly this so the learning curve used to be pretty high you know even before the Phantom series and with the Phantom 3 it became a lot easier to get up in the air but there's still a lot of confidence issues for people getting up in the air for the first time and learning how to get excellent shots we're trying to decrease that time from getting up in the air for the very first time and getting exactly the shot that you want and this is the system to do that by and large if you wanted to do any complex maneuvers you had to learn how to use a two strik controller and fly manually so the idea is with tap to fly you don't have to do that anymore you could just sort of use the viewfinder like what you can see as the way to set the shot yeah we're trying to find an easier interface for first-time pilots to be able to use and there's really nothing more simple than pointing in a direction that you want it to fly it also makes it easier to get smooth shots you know when you're filming in one direction you're often making little micro Corrections that cause the footage to look a little wobbly right this just creates one smooth shot and if you try to change directions likewise it'll smooth out the direction of the shot so that you get a really beautiful image now we're heading towards the building fingers crossed it will make a decision about how to deal with that so yeah as you can see it just got a really beautiful shot going over the top of that abandoned Factory and we didn't decide to ascend it did that all on its own it cleared it perfectly that would that's a lot closer than I probably would have felt today flying on my own but you know you let the robot decide what what's best so this is our moment of truth the drone is going to lock on to us as a human Waal one of us anyway and then we're going to tap to fly it's going to head towards us and sense that we're an obstacle hopefully and avoid us yep so you just pick a point in front of it hit go here comes the drone hopefully it sees us and decides to fly over our head wasn't even close see benevolent robot overlords the fully autonomous mode on the Phantom 4 are amazing and they're starting to push up against the edge of what the Federal Aviation Administration considers safe flying practices so I guess the hardball question I asked now is if somebody buys this and you know learns to take off with the swipe of a button and just uses you know tap to fly they never learn to fly then what happens if something goes wrong they've never really used a two state controller right so there's actually a number of things that we've built on board one is there's some things that you can only access if you're doing using two sticks so using sports mode for example that's an advanced flying mode that we only allow people to unlock if they agree that they know how to fully operate using the sticks then there's some more advanced features like that rotation around people that still requires using the to stick interface while it's tracking so it's these different things that we're trying to provide options for people going from the very entry level to more advanced features down the line I think the thing that is most exciting and probably most terrifying about this is that a lot of beginners are going to be able to take this thrown out into the field to do a lot of great flying and to basically never learn to pilot it's kind of like when Tesla pushed that update to its car that was self-driving and then told you to keep your hands on the wheel you know that's the way people are if you give it the ability to be completely autonomous some people are going to get reckless with it but definitely the most exciting drone I've ever played with and the one that is most aptly referred to as an actual drone you