Gesture recognition allows kids to play a life-sized game with the drone. (Source: Philips Lighting) Drones have been converted for use in many applications from surveying and mapping, to delivery of products, rescue operations, and new types of extreme sports.
Now, Philips Lighting is using drones equipped with the company’s Visible Light Communication (VLC) technology to help children in a Dutch hospital play a game with an autonomous indoor UAV that plays tic-tac-toe.
The drone, developed by Blue Jay, uses the VLC technology to navigate and uses hand gestures by the children to play the game. The drone can also pick up and deliver objects to a location to assist those who are less mobile, Philips says.
The VLC lighting enables the drone to pinpoint its location and navigate autonomously to squares of a tic-tac-toe board. The demonstration of the drone means the lighting could be extended to ceiling lights to act like an indoor GPS and transmit location through a modulation of the light, which is unnoticeable to the human eye but detectable by smart devices.
Each light fixture is using one-way transmission of a luminaire ID or code to the drone using the VLC technology and the camera one the drone does not record so no personal data is collected.
