Uses Smartphone Technology Paired With Onboard Camera

While the FAA continues to chew on how to regulate small UAVs, technology companies continue to come up with new and innovative ways to control them.

One of the latest is a company called Skydio, which says it has developed an "autopilot" for UAVs equipped with onboard cameras. According to Gizmodo, the company says that Skydio allows you to simply point your smartphone where you want your UAV to go ... and it goes there.

The company says the technology essentially turns the onboard camera into a "drone visual cortex" that translates the 2D images from the camera into a 3D map of the area where the aircraft is flying. The same information can be used in a "follow me" function.

While still in the early development stages, Gizmodo reports that Skydio has attracted the attention of venture capitalists Andreesen Horowitz and Accel Partners, which have poured a combined $3 million into the project.

All of which will likely leave the FAA scratching its collective head wondering how it can keep up with the technology as it grinds through its regulatory process.

(Image from file)

FMI: http://skyd.io/