Gadgetory

last year Amazon made a surprising announcement instead of sending every package through the mail who was gonna look into delivering them through the air single drone would take off and bring it directly to your rooftop within an hour of your order there are a lot of logistical and regulatory problems to work out first but the announcement opened up an important door someday soon flying deliveries through the sky might be cheaper than driving them over roads and that's still thinking small imagine a future where tiny quadcopter drones are as common as cars and trucks they'd be everywhere above us a virtual sky way using them to move things from point A to point B is just scratching the surface of what's possible so what else will we do with them well one idea is to use them as high-tech security on massive estates you could have drones docked and that'd fly when a motion sensors triggered their drone ticks off and check things out streaming back live video so you can ignore the situation if it's just a straight grope if it's something more sinister you could alert the local cops or shoot out some pepper spray if you combine drones with technologies like virtual reality the possibilities for these eyeballs in the sky get even more interesting anyone with an internet connection than a GoPro could take flight over a raging river or travel inside an active volcano quadriplegics have been testing out ways to fly drones using just the movement of their eyes forget about IMAX with live streaming video and head tracking Hardware millions of viewers could each experience their own version of a high-speed drone runs with grin Ken of course that new freedom cuts both ways those same drones could be used as airborne paparazzi hovering endlessly over celebrity targets and so far there's no law to keep them from peering inside your windows as they fly far overhead in public airspace we've already seen the first burst of creative use for drones but it may be followed by heavy restrictions and hard questions how much airspace do we really want to give up how much weaponry should your security drone be allowed to carry and maybe most controversial will drone you stay open to casual hobbyists or will it require a license and registration like flying a helicopter driving a car a gun we're still struggling with these questions and the answers will make a big difference and how the drones of the future behave