Way back in 2013 – way back is appropriate in today’s world of rapidly-advancing technology – Google revealed that it owned or controlled in excess of 51,000 patents. And that was five years ago, so there’s no telling how many patents the world’s third-largest company by valuation has – technically, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is the third-largest, but you get the point.
Amazon, the company that overtook Alphabet for the rank of second-largest company by means of valuation, recently made headlines for an approved patent that squeaked its way out of the United States Patent Office earlier this week.
Seeing as the world’s largest tech companies collectively hold a gazillion patents for every gadget we might see in the future, it comes as no surprise that most of these patents are highly innovative, if not quirky.
Amazon filed the patent for an unmanned drone that delivers packages. But what’s so special about that? Here’s what: Amazon’s futuristic drone of tomorrow – more like drone of 2050, not tomorrow – understands human speech, pointing, light flash patterns, arm waving, and likely every other gesture known to man.
The official patent release states, in part, that “humans can communicate with the vehicle using human gestures to aid the vehicle along its path to the delivery location.”
Based on nothing more than common human gestures, Amazon’s delivery drone autonomously changes direction, speed, and potentially other actions.
But how might Amazon’s concept drone operate? With two eyes, a nose, a mouth, and two ears? That’d surely work, right?
Not really – it’s not a human, by any means, even with its high-tech artificial intelligence – but it will feature a camera to detect visible light, one for infrared light, sensors for light, sensors for audio, and both cameras and sensors to sense depth.
Here’s an important takeaway all readers should fully understand: just because a patent is filed or approved doesn’t mean the widget in the patent will actually come to life. Further, other companies have patents for similar drone concepts, including Samsung’s drone that can analyze human gestures made with hands and faces, DJI’s “Spark” drone that’s responsive to hand movements, and Amazon’s drone capable of self-destruction on command – the patent for this drone concept hit the news several months ago, if not longer than a year in the past – and even a physical mirror that lets you try on outfits without actually doing so.
Somebody call The Jetsons!
Dil Bole Oberoi
