A staff member of major Chinese consumer-drone maker DJI shows Phantom 4, the latest consumer quadcopter camera (or "drone") introduced by DJI last week, at DJI's flagship store in Seoul, capital of South Korea, on March 11, 2016. (Photo: Xinhua/Yao Qilin)
The future of drones, the buzzing devices that increasingly fill the skies above our heads, may be in China where drone maker DJI is the dominant force in the global consumer drone market, CNN reported.
Since its Phantom 1 model wowed the world in 2012, the tech startup has led the fledgling industry. It now says the future of the device will be decided more by customers than manufacturers.
"The form will follow the function," said Michael Perry, DJI's director of strategic partnerships. "It depends on how people start incorporating it into their daily lives."
The Shenzhen-based company has already let software developers create their own apps for some drones, allowing drones to be tailored for multiple uses.
"We saw a team of whale researchers use our systems to fly over whale pods and collect their snot so that they can do advanced analytics to determine their health," Perry said. The researchers nicknamed the device "the snot bot."
DJI has also developed a model that can accurately spray crops in difficult-to-reach areas. It's also talking to Europe's biggest emergency response network about how to use drones in search and rescue, firefighting and surveillance.
The company hopes its products, which can take high-quality photos and videos, will become a more regular part of people's lives.
