KAREN'S REPLACEMENT

"Papa, check this out!"

As I walked out on the deck last evening, our grandson launched a very cool drone, complete with blinking lights and a camera. Seeing this got me to wondering where all of this UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) is headed. 

The skies above all of us may soon be buzzing with drones, delivering packages and taking pictures and video. It seems like this technology arrived overnight and is now on the brink of exploding with some really practical applications. I know this opens up serious privacy issues, but here are just a few creative uses of this technology.

  PARKING    Small-scale drones are proposed to find free parking spots, determine the shortest path to it, and guide drivers to the space; either by them following the drone, or through their mobile application. The technology will use infrared and thermal cameras to work at night.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/technology/article11109890.html#storylink=cpy

  PICTURES AND VIDEO    For a drone's eye view of Chicago click HERE. Drones can be incredibly useful if you want to capture shots of yourself snowboarding, jet skiing, or doing any activity that is otherwise hard to shoot. 

  SPORTS COVERAGE     Golf Channel used a hovering drone with a camera recently at a golf tournament.

  HUMANITARIAN AID    Over 1 billion people across the world live in areas where the roads are largely inaccessible for most of the year. That means access to food, water, medication, and other necessitates is limited. Drones may satisfy this need.

  UNLIMITED POSSIBILITIES   Delivering tacos, mail, pizza, stuff from Amazon, disaster relief, fighting crime, monitoring our country's borders, hunters finding their big buck....the possibilities seem endless. Oh, and one more use .....

  KAREN'S REPLACEMENT    A restaurant is already testing drones to deliver food from the kitchen to the tables. Controlled by an iPad, it has two built-in cameras so that the kitchen staff can keep tabs on the drone, dubbed the "iTray,".

(During our men's group each Friday, Karen is our favorite waitress. We feel bad that the drone will be replacing her, but hey, think of the money we will save on tips!)