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Drones, 3D printing, and AR/VR: Unrealized potential, competent results, and worrisome futures

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By David Gewirtz

for DIY-IT

| December 2, 2019 — 16:55 GMT (16:55 GMT)

| Topic: Innovation

A world where ubiquitous AR and VR exist?
ZDNet’s David Gewirtz tells TechRepublic’s Karen Roby about what a future of ubiquitous AR and VR could look like, and the potential pros and cons it would present. Read more: https://zd.net/2ChwIGX

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday in their full, week-long glory, many gifts will be bought for deserving (and sometimes not-so-deserving, but still beloved) folks the world over. Among the gifts bought will be drones, 3D printers, and — somewhat less frequently — AR and VR kits, mostly for the gamers who have everything.

Of course, gift-givers aren’t the only purchasers. Geeks, makers, and early adopters will take advantage of the sales to procure the gadgets for themselves. Whatever the purchase motivation, the population of drones, 3D printers, and AR/VR rigs in consumers’ hands will increase measurably in the next few weeks.

For some, these new purchases will be the beginning of something special. But for many, these classes of gadgets will join other under-realized technology, destined to gather dust for years to come.

Droning on

It seems that any offshore company with a factory and a predilection for producing electronic gadgets is producing drones these days. That’s certainly pushed the entry-level price of drones down, but it’s not to everyone’s benefit.

Over the past few years, I’ve brought in five drones to test and review. Thankfully, I didn’t pay for them, because of the five, only one — the industry-leading Mavic Pro — was worthwhile. I tried a $50 toy quadcopter, which did, in fact, fly like a toy. It had no real flying smarts and a terrible camera, and while it could get up in the air, it had absolutely no stability.

I tried a tiny, collapsible drone that is about the size of an iPhone when folded. It had a 4K camera. If all you wanted was a moderately unsteady selfie stick that you didn’t have to hold onto while using, it was good enough. It couldn’t hold the air, so you had to use it just a few feet away — which meant the drone’s prop noise got in the way of any clean mic recordings.

After about 30 feet, the connection to the drone failed. I didn’t lose mine, but that’s probably because I didn’t send it far away. Some well-known YouTubers, including superstar Casey Neistat, reported that products provided to them simply flew away, never to be seen again.

Then I brought in two considerably more expensive drones. One was about a thousand bucks, while the other was over two grand. I did manage the launch of the first one, once. But then the battery died. After five or six months of back and forth with the vendor and its PR team, we never were able to determine if it was the custom charger or the battery that was bad. In any case, like the Spruce Goose, it flew once, never to fly again.

The second, the two thousand dollar one, required an active network connection to log in and set up. No problem. But it also required a dedicated connection to the drone’s own Wi-Fi hub to control the drone. Switching between these modes was problematic because once the drone converted to Wi-Fi mode after setup, it stayed that way until a factory reset. It turns out that you could activate via LTE, but in some of the locations where drone flight is permitted, there isn’t much in the way of a good LTE signal.

This bad boy also came with three different controllers, including a weird Rube Goldberg contraption that needed to be connected inline to use the WiiMote-like controller. But the deal-killer was this: it was potentially deadly.

Getting it up in the air was not a problem, although it wasn’t exactly steady or smooth in flight. Landing it wasn’t even that bad. But getting it to power off after landing was. I twice attempted to do “the joystick maneuver” required to power down the props. Each time, the unit flipped over and began to dig into the dirt. It’s a big unit with fast-spinning props, so when it went sideways, it became a torpedo without control. It would shoot in a random direction, upside down with the spinning props bouncing it up and down off the ground. Oops.

You’ll notice I didn’t mention the vendor of these last two drones. That was on purpose. Some of the challenges in their use might have been situational to me. But the fact is, drones are complex, difficult devices that, when used properly, are amazing.

But they’re not really ready for primetime. For example, I can’t fly a drone near where I live. Hobbyist drone users can now get instant FAA flight clearance from something called LAANC — but not all airports participate. I’ve tried for over a year to get launch clearance from the small state-run airport near my home, but since the airport doesn’t have a tower, getting clearance has proven to be impossible.

I love drones. In two very low, controlled, rooftop-level flights, I’ve used my Mavic to check my roof for a leak and map where to put security cameras. And, in those places where it was possible to get flight clearance, I had a blast filming the gorgeous Oregon terrain. But we constantly see reports on Facebook about kids who’ve lost their drones or got them stuck on one roof or another, and I’m sure we’re going to read about drones hitting small planes.

Drones are tools and, as tools, they’re wonderful. But they are not really toys. They’re going to be subject to more rules and regulations. Even as the AI and sensor technology in drones gets better, we can count on unrealized potential, competent results, and worrisome futures for a long time to come.

Droning on

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