Daniel Eran Dilger
At a press event on San Francisco's Treasure Island, drone vendor DJI unveiled its new prosumer-class Inspire drone with 4K video capabilities and announced a new Software Development Kit to allow third party developers to write apps that work with its flagship Phantom 2 Vision flying cameras.
Phantom SDK
DJI's new SDK allows developers to tap into a variety of data and settings available on Phantom 2 Vision Plus and Phantom 2 Vision drones. This includes direct access to the flight controller, providing altitude, longitude and latitude; status and error information; and home point and no-fly zone information (such as when operating near an airport).
The SDK also provides access to battery voltage and status; WiFi range, power and link status; ground station controls for setting programmed waypoints for automated flights; and camera and gimbal data for full control of photo and video capture.
Additional information on the new SDK is available at http://dev.dji.com. The company also featured a new sharing site for aerial photography at skypixel.com.
The new DJI Inspire 1
DJi also announced its new Inspire drone platform, a higher end offering 4K video capture on a new camera featuring exchangeable lens filters; the company's Lightbridge video streaming technology and a new flight control system featuring a downward facing camera that helps stabilize the unit even when it loses GPS lock.
These guys got free ones #DJI pic.twitter.com/HsaAYb85pJ
— Daniel Eran Dilger (@DanielEran) November 13, 2014The new drone was introduced with the help of Adam Savage Jamie Hyneman of MythBusters (above). It's priced at $2,900, about twice as much as the consumer-oriented Phantom Vision 2 but far less than DJI's professional grade S-1000, which starts around $7,000.
AppleInsider has reviewed DJI's Vision 2 Plus, which has been used to capture sneak peaks of Apple's mysterious showroom used to introduce Apple Watch and iPhone 6, as well as to present a tour of Apple's Campus 2 and existing Infinite Loop headquarters.
For those looking to buy the DJI Inspire 1, B&H Photo has them up for preorder at $2,899, with no sales tax collected for buyers outside of New York. The Inspire 1 is currently slated to ship on Dec. 1.
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I give it 12 months and these things will be banned. Or you'll need a licence to own them.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngoglia/2014/10/15/drone-pilots-beware-new-faa-enforcement-policy-targets-you-licensed-pilots-at-particular-risk/
They won't ever ban them completely, but I could see more restrictions on where and how you can fly quadcopters and other UAS systems. In any event, the Inspire 1 is definitely a big advancement in ready to fly quadcopter technology, though it is quite expensive for many consumers now. Check out my full review of the Inspire 1: quadcopterhq.com/dji-inspire-1-review/ as well as tips about other ready to fly quadcopter models.
I give it 12 months and these things will be banned. Or you'll need a licence to own them.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngoglia/2014/10/15/drone-pilots-beware-new-faa-enforcement-policy-targets-you-licensed-pilots-at-particular-risk/
Something definitely needs to done. There is a lot of potential in the use of drones for both good and bad, so some regulation and licensing of these 'drones' is needed.
[quote name="Realistic" url="/t/183393/dji-announces-inspire-prosumer-drone-with-4k-video-recording-releases-sdk-for-phantom-2-vision#post_2638673"] Something definitely needs to done. There is a lot of potential in the use of drones for both good and bad, so s[COLOR=000000]ome regulation and licensing of these 'drones' is needed.[/COLOR] [/quote] Why "must" something be done?