Taking control of the Parrot drone

Dubai Drones are moving from war zones to the home front. The army might soon start controlling unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) using modified Android and Apple smartphones and tablets.

The Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 is a WiFi quadricopter that can take images or videos and can be controlled with your smartphone or tablet.

With this drone you won't be able to actually bomb you neighbour's house, but it does help to prove the versatility of smartphones these days.

According to the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), anything that flies at more than 120 metres requires a certificate of authorisation, but you don't need a licence to fly something like the Parrot's quadricopter.

It can reach a height of 50 metres or within the WiFi range.

Camera can catch live footage

"What makes the Drone 2 even cooler is the AR part in its name — the augmented reality feature that lets you play games by augmenting the live footage captured by the camera mounted on the front and bottom of the quadricopter," Robin Nicloas, channel and purchasing manager at Parrot, said.

One of the notable improvements over the original Parrot AR Drone — launched in 2010 — is that it can now capture 720p HD video and still photos. Users can save images or videos on a USB key through a USB port hidden inside the device, next to the battery.

The AR.Freeflight app, a free download for iOS and Android devices, allows users to upload any captured videos directly to YouTube, or still photos to Google's Picasa service.

The Drone can be flown both inside and outside. It comes with two different shells for each type of environment with the indoor shell encompassing the propellers to protect walls and furniture allowing the AR Drone to just "bounce" off them.

Windows users must wait as the app is not available right now. But the software development kit (SDK) is available for developers and it is free.

Some enterprising manufacturers in China decided to make their latest 42-metre long superyacht, Adastra, controllable via an iPad. I guess that in the future, everyone will control everything using their tablets or smartphones.