Mrs. Billings was upgrading her phone at the Verizon store last week and I saw a box with a nifty looking quadricopter on a rack. I'm a big kid, I can admit it and I looked the box over. Come to find out, it's more than a remote control toy, it's a UAV that is controlled over wifi with a smart phone or tablet, with streaming video. Range is rather limited, but the cost is a mere $300. The images are kind of low res (stated to be HD, which I think is around 1.3 megapixel). But with digital cameras becoming increasingly less expensive for insane resolutions, it wouldn't take much to take this device and build a low altitude aerial platform for photogrammetry. I could easily see (once the FAA deregulates UAVs) that a surveyor could buy a system that could survey a small commercial site (say 5 or 6 acres) for a couple or three grand, including the photogrammetric software. There's so much money on the line, I think the big guys will lobby the necessary changes through. The only question is what regulations they'll insist on to protect their market share.
http://ardrone2.parrot.com /"> http://http://ardrone2.parrot.com/
My older brother was a rc plane fanatic. He would go down
to the junior high sports field to fly it. He had one of those
range problems you are talking about. When he tracked down his
lost plane, it had crashed on the hood of a car of a nearby
neighbor.
We got there and said, "You have squatters rights. The plane is yours!?!
thanks Adam. That's sweet!
Check out http://www.gatewing.com/ I don't think it is legal to fly without FAA approval in the US.