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As the drone market has become a multi billion dollar business, there are more and more competitors fighting for drone supremacy. And since they have made a number of acquisitions to stay ahead, GoPro will soon become the leader on the drone market.
The emerging video drone market
The drone market has been developing for years, with more and more advanced models coming out every few months or so.
Recently, however, more and more drone manufacturers are focusing more on the video quality presented by the drone’s camera, rather than making any significant efforts to improve the drones themselves.
Even Twitter recently patented a drone model, which will probably come out some time in 2017; it will of course be focused on the social media aspect of the device, allowing the drone to film and photograph and then post directly to your Twitter account.
GoPro’s significant acquisitions
In an effort to not improve their video quality, but also their overall drone quality, GoPro has purchased a number of technologies and software companies which kind of make the company one of the most developed on the market.
For starters, Kolor was a France based software company which developed a way to seamlessly glue together footage from a 360 degree camera.
GoPro purchased the company, made the founder Senior Director of Immersive Media Solutions, and already implemented the software to be used on a drone.
Compared to other drones on the market, there is almost no shaking caused either by the drone’s movements, or by moving the camera around. It simply offers perfect video image in 360 degrees.
Another very important piece of technology acquired by the company is that developed by Switzerland based company Skybotix.
The firm developed a software that allows a drone to generate 3D space and constraints in real time, providing the drone with a way to pilot itself, without any inputting aid from a pilot, through any obstacle course, indoors or outdoors.
Without taking into consideration the fact that it makes a GPS function completely redundant, this technology works with the help of industrial grade visual odometry, as well as real time 3D space reconstruction.
The company has also purchased some of the most experienced teams and labs in the field, practically having ensured the fact that no other drone companies will have products with as many features, or with features as good as theirs.
Image source: Wikimedia
