Epson announced the Epson Drone Soar app, claimed to be the first full-featured AR app for DJI drone pilots using the Epson Moverio AR Smart glasses. The app is said to deliver ‘never-before-seen’ AR experiences for DJI drone users, including AR content, flight telemetry data and video feed monitoring.
Analyst Comment
Epson showed this app when Matt recently met up with Epson recently in New York, but this announcement was under embargo. (Epson Introduces Moverio BT-35E Smart Glasses)
My father had been a pilot in his younger days and when he retired, he took up model flying. One of the challenges for him was that it was no problem to fly when the model aircraft was flying away from him, but it took him some time to get used to switching around when the plane started heading towards him! Having a view from the device itself would have solved this problem for him, as Epson has shown.
We haven’t reported on developments in drones, but there is a big and growing professional market for the technology and Epson’s move looks like a good one. (BR)
One of the most interesting features of this new app was its use of Moverio head tracking. This could be used to control the direction the camera on the drone pointed, allowing the drone operator to point the drone camera just by looking in the direction he wanted the drone camera to look. The see-through image shown on the Moverio HMD then matched the new direction of the camera. Of course, when you pointed the camera by moving your head to look down or around, in most cases you lost sight of the drone on the see-through portion of the Moverio. (MSB)
