1. Drones for Newsgathering in Mainstream Media

Drone Journalism has been around for a while. In fact, there is a whole organisation dedicated to it. It’s never been picked up by mainstream media until now. A new initiative by the New York Times, the Washington post and 8 other prominent publications will experiment with the use of small UAVs for newsgathering. The advantages of drones as newsgathering tools in certain situations, because they provide journalists with a safe way to gather important footage and information or give them incognito access to normally inaccessible areas.

source: TheDrum

2. Drones Against Mosquitoes

NBC-2.com WBBH News for Fort Myers, Cape Coral

Mosquito control can be very expensive, requiring the use of aircraft in order to spread anti-mostquito pellets and spray. To deal with this The Lee County, Florida Mosquito Control is testing the use of drones. They have so far developed a drone which locates bodies of water and drops mosquito-killing pellets in them and one which flies and simultaneously sprays anti-mosquito spray. The use of drones in such cases could potentially reduce the costs of mosquito-control significantly. Now all we need is for the FAA to approve of such cases.

Source: NBC 2

3. A Solar-powered Drone

Not much is known about the drone as Women of China’s article does not go into much detail, however we do know that several students from Nanchang Hankong University have created a solar-powered drone. We personally are quite curious how much energy the drone can really gather from the sun and whether or not it will be enough to increase its battery life in a significant way.

Source: Women of China

4. Drones as Farm Dogs

With the recent development in UAVs, New Zealand’s farm dogs may soon be made redundant. The country has been hard at work developing drones which could perform the dogs’ job, including herding livestock and barking when necessary. While sheep being led by a flying quad does sound a bit dystopian, it could mean substantial savings for farmers and a much easier lifestyle for farm dogs!

Source: TVNZ

5. A Drone Tour of the Hearst Tower



As a celebration of the 10 year anniversary of the Hearst Tower, architect Norman Foster has used a drone to provide viewers with a virtual tour of the building. The tour shows all of the important aspects of the Hearst Tower along with some which are not readily visible from a human point of view. The tour is definitely worth the watch even if just to understand the philosophy behind the design of this amazing building.

Source: Hyperbeast