Last night I thought of a novel application for “drones”. (“Drone” is a bad word – R/C aircraft, UAV or remotely piloted model aircraft are all benign and accurate terms and have been used to describe civilian applications for a long time.)
Some of the new R/C n-copters (quad, hex or octo-copters) have very advanced flight control systems that simplify flying and provide safety features (like automatic return in case of loss of control signal).
Once these are easy and small enough to operate, they could provide a type of telepresence to someone who is unable to have much mobility. Many R/C pilots have added First Person Video (FPV) links that send a video signal from the craft back to the pilot; a very few even have 3D video links.
Crazy as it sounds, such capabilities could give a telepresence mobility to those who are, say, confined to a wheel chair or worse, provided they have the ability to operate the flight controls. That, in turn, could open up their surroundings to an exploration that they are presently unable to do.
