NEC has announced the development of an unmanned drone [JP] that can fly by itself to a specific location and send back positional information and video images. The company says it’s the first drone made for civilian applications that can transmit both kinds of data at the same time.
The small plane (overall length: 1,29m, weight: 3kg, wing span: 2m) is equipped with gyro sensors, two video cameras (one conventional model, one infra-red) and GPS. Users can let it fly for 20 minutes and are able to receive information within a 2.5km radius of the receiver.
NEC plans to charge $250,000 for the whole set (you also get a launcher and other accessories with the drone), hoping to sell up to 100 systems by 2014.
Everything about this sounds awesome, except for the very high price, and short flight time. Doesn’t seem like you could get very far in 20 minutes…