Video: YouTube user njoubert
News of Stanford University’s new flight preparation and drone pilot program is sure to excite and delight all drone users and operators. The software developed by the leading Californian university is called Horus - after the falcon deity of Ancient Egypt that could see and observe at great distances -,and promises to bring about a reduction of drone collisions, accidents and ‘missed opportunities’ for photographic and video recording.
The news of Horus is promising. Taking out the guesswork and the risk of miscalculation and piloting - alongside promising to bring about more effective flights and filming via a pre-planned route - Horus shall allow a user to plan a flight in Google Earth, before then using the Quadcopter app to pilot your drone and set your custom flightpath into action. From the looks of the footage the pre-planned shots using the app were fantastic and when compared to amateur pilots capturing the same shot it was easy to see how promising this technology could be. The smoothness and precision was very impressive especially since all flights were preplanned using Google Earth rather then something like PreNav which first scans the area using a tripod mounted ground station to create a virtual map.
While there may never be a substitute for a professional aerial cinematographer its easy to see that this could allow average pilots the freedom to capture stunning aerial cinematography without a lot of the risks involved in aerial filming. It also opens the doors to motion control type shots in the air which is huge for the Motion Picture industry. Currently its next to impossible to capture the same exact aerial shot twice but with Horus the same camera move and flight can be done over and over again which directors and more importantly visual effects.
Apps such as these are tremendous for promising to bring about a great precision and efficient use of drones in their day-to-day flights by operators and making it that much easier to get the shot!