Drones are becoming advanced by the day, this quadcopter, the Phantom 4 is one good example of how far drones technology has advanced. After spending close to $1400 you would wish your drone did not crash into a tree or building while flying. The Phantom 4 does exactly that and that too without human intervention. It is capable of tracking humans and following them along with avoiding obstacles coming in its way.
This is the first consumer drone which can sense idle objects like buildings, trees and moving objects as well. It comes with five cameras to make this possible – two cameras on the front and two on the bottom along with a main 4K camera present on board to capture video in 4K resolution. To help the drone navigate around the images captures are run through computer vision which creates a 3D model of the world around using which the drone navigates around.
With costly drones, the risk of damaging the fragile flying cameras was always high and for a novice to fly around a drone which more than $1000 is a nightmare. The Phantom 4 takes away the fear of crashing at least on solid and big surfaces, it has its limitations as it cannot detect any wires like power lines etc which can pose a problem when flying in autonomous mode.
The Phantom 4 comes with a new feature called TapFly which lets you handle the Drone without the use of the two-stick controller. You just have to Push one button to take off, set a maximum distance the drone can travel, and just tap on the live video feed that appears on your screen. From the feed, you can keep selecting the objects you want the drone to go to and it will adjust its direction accordingly all the while avoiding any obstacles it might face in the process.
To keep the Phantom 4 stable, the drone now comes equipped with two cameras and two ultrasonic sensors on its body. With these sensors, it is eliminating the need to keep adjusting while being fixed at a place which is quite impressive and makes it look like the Drone has frozen in air. The ActiveTrack feature lets you trace a circle around a subject which you want to have in a frame and this will make the Phantom 4 automatically track the object using the 3D model built by the onboard computer. You can let it fly completely autonomous or make slight adjustments using the touch display in hand. There is a Sports mode as well, which lets the user gain full control over the drone and it should be accessed only when you have perfected the art of flying the drone.
With the new set of features like TapFly and ActiveTrack the Phantom 4 is a boon for beginners who are not so perfect with controlling these drones using the two-stick controller. Earlier new users used to go for the cheaper variants and learn to fly perfectly before going in for the costlier ones and with the Phantom 4 even a novice can enjoy the features of a top end drone without the fear of damaging the $1400 flying camera.
The Phantom 4 will be available for purchase on DJI.com and Apple.com starting from March 1st. On March 15th it will be available in-store at DJI’s flagship store in Shenzen. The price of all the Phantom 3 models has been cut by $200 or more.
