A drone launches from the USS Lassen.
What’s the first thing that pops into your head when you hear “drones”? Military spy planes---or sophisticated toys cultivated by a growing group of DIY enthusiasts? The ingredients that go into an unmanned aerial vehicle, such as autopilot technology, GPS, and cameras, have grown small enough to fit on a toy plane and cheap enough for amateurs to buy, in part because these electronics are also integral components of smartphones. On the Wired Danger Room blog, Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of the magazine, predicts
the rise of the personal drone industry.
Why? The reason is the same as with every other digital technology: a Moore’s-law-style pace where performance regularly doubles while size and price plummet. In fact, the Moore’s law of drone technology is currently accelerating, thanks to the smartphone industry, which relies on the same components—sensors, optics, batteries, and embedded processors—all of them ...
