Epson’s Moverio platform is moving the AR boundaries once more. As revealed today, the company has confirmed the new Drone Soar app for its line of smart eyewears. Designed specifically for DJI drones, the new app comes packed with features and it is perhaps the AR drone app we’ve been aching for.
It is difficult to find a better match for augmented reality market than what drones offer. Both AR and drones are fledglings in terms of how novel the technology is. Both aspire to great heights, both are prospective businesses in the years to come, and offer one another the unique development possibility. It therefore seemed only a matter of time when we’d get the first full-featured AR drone app. Slow to take off at first, Epson has finally come out with a concrete effort that flies real well. The Drone Soar app from Epson works with Moverio BT-300 Drone Edition smart glasses, enhancing the aviation experience at all its stages.
The one obvious enhancement is the possibility to pilot the drone whilst having an eye on it the whole time. This is an entirely new way of experiencing aircrafts. The wearable display is not intrusive with only the essentials shown in real time. The redefined display also makes piloting a lot more intuitive, not to say easier. Getting rid of the tiresome mobile devices, Epson collaborated with DJI in delivering the best user experience specific to drones. As the Epson America AR product manager Erik Mizufuka is recorded saying: ‘At Epson, we are focused on expanding the drone market and providing cutting-edge AR technology that will make it more accessible for consumers’.
The Silicon-Valley app developer YML bit a lot with AR drone app, but pulled the project off with flying colors. The trick was always going to be how to adjusts the user interface to look as seamless, but be as functional as possible. YML proved to be up for the task. The company’s CEO Ashish Toshniwal confirms that ‘this was such a great opportunity to bring what we do in innovative design as an agency to a new kind of application’.
The new kind of application is AR which comes into the mix with the myriad of reality features. These include all stages of flight process from pre-flight visualization and real-time assistance, to post-flight visual features. The AR drone app also comes with goodies like flight telemetry data and video feed monitoring. One particularly neat addition is the Find My Drone feature which points the direction of the drone up in the sky. As a flying package, there is indeed nothing on the market quite like the Epson DJI Augmented Reality pairing.
The future seems bright for drone enthusiasts. Apart from the AR drone app addition, this week saw another big news from DJI. As for the Augmented Reality, the technology is not only improving but is also spreading to different platforms. From enhancing car windshields to drone control, we’ll be seeing a lot more of AR in the coming years.
