A man who had been freezing to death in a ditch, roughly 160 metres away from his vehicle, was able to be located thanks to the help of a drone.
It didn't take long for the drone to find him unresponsive, in a ditch that was 6-feet deep, when the rescuers got to him. The drone was able to find him thanks to the infrared camera and the police say that it helped to save the man's life.
And it's sure nice to see authorities putting this technology to use in order to help save people's lives, rather than using it to police plants and harass people over victimless ”crimes”.
Drones today are being increasingly used in various industries around the world. Not only are a growing number of emergency response teams and police teams looking to use them to conduct their duties, but you can also find them being used to survey land, monitor crops, and much more.
In Washington state alone, they're looking to at least double their drone use by the end of this year.
Drones have been used on many occasions to help find people who have gone missing. This technology provides incredible value in many ways, one of them being that it's able to help search a lot more efficiently for people whenever they go missing.
They can be used to help analyze the safety of an area before rescue crews go, assist in fighting fires, cleaning-up after car accidents, delivering life-saving medical supplies, and plenty more.
A previous PwC analysis from 2016 valued the overall UAV market to be worth around $127 billion.
Despite the difficulty though, hundreds of millions of dollars continues to be invested into this space and there are a growing number of companies that are looking to start using drones as a part of their regular operations.
By 2020, it's estimated that there will be at least 7 million drones or more in the United States. Though, regulatory hurdles might not be the only problem that needs to be tackled. That's because previous surveys have suggested that a majority of Americans don't want drones flying close to where they live. And there are many legal and civil liberties advocates, and others, who have frequently voiced their worries for the privacy concerns that drones might pose.
As far as trying to make drones more appealing to the public, their look might have little to do with it. Researchers suggest that the design of the drone doesn't really matter in making it any more appealing to most people. A previous study from the University of Nevada discovered that our perception of drones isn't impacted by their design, to them a drone is simply a drone. It's still a long road ahead and going to be a difficult job for various industries to try and gain acceptance with the public (and authorities), in moving to use drone technology for a myriad of tasks and services.
Pics:
Pixabay
pixabay
giphy
Sources:
https://dronedj.com/2018/02/26/police-drone-finds-car-crash-victim-freezing-to-death-with-hypothermia-in-deep-ditch/
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-43201554
http://www.king5.com/article/news/local/washington-state-increases-use-of-drone-fleet/281-523622770
https://www.forbes.com/sites/hecparis/2017/12/07/the-day-of-the-drone-how-flying-robots-are-revolutionizing-business/#6c385af993a0
https://www.cbinsights.com/research/drone-impact-society-uav/
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/01/in-race-to-dominate-drone-space-west-is-no-match-for-chinas-dji.html
https://www.techworld.com/picture-gallery/apps-wearables/best-uses-of-drones-in-business-3605145/
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/11/08/drone-used-to-find-missing-woman-in-north-carolina-cornfield-video-shows.html
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/surprising-drone-study-shows-how-people-really-feel-about-drones-2015-11-11
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/more-than-a-third-fear-drone-use-in-us-poll/