The brokers claim they are only using the devices on private property, and keeping them below 500 feet. Anything flyer higher is regulated by the FAA.
A spokesman for the agency told the
New York Times the drones cannot be treated as if they are model airplanes. No permits have been issued for any to fly. Rules are in preparation.
Brokers said the drones produce far better images than helicopters, which require considerable editing.
The Amazon idea of delivering items by drones doesn’t seem so weird after all. Drones already are being used in search and rescue missions and monitor remote farmland,
USA Today reports. They can cover far more terrain, at less cost, than helicopters.
"I walk down the street and see drone dollars everywhere," says Patrick Egan, a drone consultant who heads the Silicon Valley chapter of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, or AUVSI, a lobbying group for the industry. "The potential is huge, and thousands of people are already flying them around the U.S. making money."
France already has a company training drone pilots, Delta Drone.
“We’re not selling $150,000 homes with this technology,” said Matthew Leone, the director of web marketing and chief drone master for Halstead Properties. “Multimillion-dollar homes demand Madison Avenue marketing and advertising, not Main Street.”
Scott Gerami, a Re/Max broker in the Chicago suburb of Naperville, makes his own mini-drones, says the
Chicago Daily Herald. He puts images on YouTube. “It’s an attention-getter.”
"Technology is the name of the game today, so this really sets things apart," Gerami said. His drones are two-foot-square, and he has lost a few. They only cost about $1,000.
In the film “The Robot and Frank,” what is called augmented reality includes a robot personal assistant so tactile it can catch a falling glass of orange juice, and be taught how to burglarize homes with state-of-the-art surveillance cameras.
