A Kaepernick-tracker drone could someday be employed to help teams rob San Francisco of victory, just as the Chicago Bears did Sept. 14 in the first game played by the 49ers at their $1.2 billion new Levi’s stadium in Santa Clara.
[caption id="attachment_99925" align="alignleft" width="332"] UAV operator Steve Haga flies his quadcopter in Petaluma.[/caption]
Drones and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) unleash perplexing business, law enforcement and privacy issues as the zooming technology outflies Federal Aviation Administration efforts to regulate U.S. air space. Sales of UAVs have taken off, according to a drone seller in Petaluma. Anyone can place sophisticated GoPro-type cameras in the air nearly anywhere, anytime. But they cannot make money, according to the rules.
The FAA expects to release needed new guidelines on UAVs in 2015, or even late this year. Until then, drone pilots who use their crafts for commercial use fly scared, dodging FAA scrutiny to avoid fines.
One business use could be in professional sports such as the NFL.
Quarterback Colin Kaepernick threw passes to players on the wrong team in that 49ers game, particularly Brandon Marshall, the Chicago Bears receiver who plucked two of Kaep’s tosses out of the air, grabbing the ball and the game.
A tiny unmanned aerial vehicle weighing barely a pound could fly directly over Kaepernick during entire games, videotape his moves in real time, rise up during plays to show perspective then drop down to reveal how he navigates a pounding field of defensive Bears. The device could feed data into a computer, analyze it and spit out Kaepernick’s vulnerabilities – moments when he’s likely to let loose a sloppy pass.
Other such fanciful applications could include giving viewers dramatic, entertaining new footage on every play, especially focusing on star players.FAA frowns on drones for business
But sorry, the FAA maintains, commercial use of UAVs is illegal and subject to fines. If you fly them as a hobbyist, fine; just don’t do business.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos predicted in December 2013 that the company would deliver packages via drones within four to five years -- if the FAA approves. That’s an if with a giant wingspan.
For now, the Napa quake on Aug. 24 provided an extraordinary glimpse of the potential news value of footage from a quadcopter, a UAV that resembles an electric helicopter with four tiny propellers. Hobbyist Evan Kilkus piloted his DJI Phantom 2 Vision-Plus equipped with a video camera nearly street by street through the damaged town to reveal a hummingbird’s glimpse of cracks, crumbled masonry and collapsed walls. Mr. Kilkus, 30, a Napa resident and recent graduate with a hospitality and tourism management degree, edited an hour of footage down to a riveting six-minute YouTube clip seen by some 230,000 viewers.
[caption id="attachment_99927" align="alignleft" width="200"] Evan Kilkus flew his quadcopter through quake-damaged Napa.[/caption]
“I’m looking at creative options to help businesses in the Napa Valley market themselves,” Mr. Kilkus said in a recent interview. When he took the quake footage, he had been flying the drone only two months. “This technology caught up,” he said. “It allows amazing stuff for $1,400. It’s a challenging object to fly. I practiced every day.”
An amateur videographer, he has high-flying aims to build a business around his quadcopter skills; his brother is a pro fashion photographer. “I knew he’d see it, so it had to be good,” Mr. Kilkus said. His dad, also a video buff, was formerly quality-assurance VP for a Petaluma telecommunications company.
“The more I operate this remote-controlled helicopter, the more I find similarities” to jet skis, which he used to race, Mr. Kilkus said. “You are always kind of skipping and sliding a bit. You have to anticipate where the machine is going to drift, putting that together with getting quality video shots.”
His goal in making the video was not to take viewers on a dramatic tour of Napa quake carnage. “There was so much life left in the buildings,” he said. “While they were damaged, there was a lot of potential. I wanted to show in the video that there was a peaceful elegance to what was remaining. It was something that hadn’t been done before.”
The quadcopter has prop guards that protect each set of propellers from damage when it makes contact with a building or other object. “You can bring it close to buildings,” he said, “even gently bump into them” and it bounces off. “If something were to happen and it were to fall down to the ground, that is protection before the propeller were to hit somebody.” The Phantom 2 weighs two pounds, five ounces.