DIY Photography

Your one stop shop for everything photo-video

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

British insurance company turns drones into flying street lamps

Nov 21, 2016 by John Aldred 4 Comments

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

directline_drones

British insurance company Direct Line is getting into the drone business. More specifically, they’re getting into the “mounting lights on drones” business. Ok, so this isn’t entirely photography related but it does hold some cool potential for photographers. Direct Line have teamed up with a bunch of drone experts to come up with what they’re calling Fleetlights.

The idea is to help aid people in dark situations. Walking home late at night through areas where there are not streetlights. To aid with police response and accident investigation in the middle of the night, and other such activities. Need some illumination? All you need do is whip out your phone, load up an app and request some light. The nearest available drones will head on over to meet you and light the way.

As I said, this isn’t exactly entirely photography related, but it does present some pretty cool innovation and ideas. The Fleetlights service is made up of what they call a “swarm” of interconnected drones. Each is equipped with high power, high efficiency on board lights and can be summoned on demand from your phone.

When you hit the button, a signal is sent to the Fleetlights HQ and then the drones are sent out on their mission to assist you. GPS data is sent from your phone to the drones, so that they always know where to find you. So, you don’t have to hang around and wait for them if you don’t want to. You can start off on your journey, and they’ll eventually catch up.

Upon arrival, they will get into formation and a “lead drone” will communicate with the other drones to tell them what to do and where to go. The lead drone is also the one that talks to the device the user is holding. It’s the ultimate in “follow me” mode drone technology. Of course, it’s not shooting footage, it’s flying lights around.

Direct Line posted another video on how the technology behind Fleetlights was created.

The lights used are Fiilex AL250 drone lights, which were originally designed for photography and video production. You might remember we showed you those a few months ago being used to light paint mountains, as well as illuminate a movie set.

flying_lights

The whole project is based on opensource hardware and software. Based around the Pixhawk flight controller, there are two drones. the S650, which is a quadcopter and the S900 which is a hexacopter. There were some technical challenges to overcome, especially when it came to speed and accuracy.

Whether the mobile communication side of things will also be released as opensource remains to be seen. It would be very cool to just tap a button and have a bunch of drones fly up in the air to light my scene and follow my subjects, though. If you need a bit more power, you can always go the DIY route.

The announcement has received mixed responses from the general British public. Some thing it’s an amazing step towards safety. Others are wearing their tinfoil hats, believing they’re something to do the the Snooper’s Charter. I’ll admit, the timing could’ve been a little better, but I’m not that paranoid. Yet.

You can find out more information on the Direct Line website, with a little more technical specifications available here. In-depth technical information is available upon request to any development teams interested in learning more.

What do you think? Is this part of the future of drone technology? Or is it just a waste of money proof of concept that’ll never go anywhere in the real world? Have you built your own Pixhawk based drones? Are you excited to see what technology this project may offer for your own drones? Let us know in the comments.

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

Manfrotto parent company, Vitec, acquires motion control company Syrp Mining company loses 9 surveillance drones – because of eagles My camera equipment was stolen from my locked car and the insurance didn’t cover it Nikon repairs may be invalidating your insurance and future warranty

Filed Under: news Tagged With: Direct Line, Drone Lights, drones

John Aldred: from diyphotography.net

About John Aldred

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

« On “Trame” – A photograph can be more than the sum of its included parts
Kylie Jenner is being accused of stealing other peoples concepts and ideas…again »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup
DIYPhotography

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Recent Posts

  • Comica CVM-VM30 is the world’s first wireless shotgun mic
  • Everything you need to know about science/technology photography
  • How Fujifilm survived while Kodak didn’t
  • Use these two simple methods to remove skin shine from portraits
  • Improved Sun Moon Expert app gets you perfectly timed sun and moon photos

Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.netUdi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

Alex Baker: from diyphotography.netAlex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

David Williams: from diyphotography.netDave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred: from diyphotography.netJohn Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.netDunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy