US e-commerce giant Amazon Inc, which is locked in a fierce battle for India’s online marketplace with home-grown Flipkart, wants to open a new front. It intends to bring in the drones to handle some of its operations in the country and has applied for a couple of patents in this regard.
In its latest patent application, Amazon has filed exclusive rights on multi-scale fiducials, black and white marks on any object for the self-operating aerial vehicles to identify them from different distances.
The proposed drones can also be used to identify other such objects, along with aircraft, plying within Indian skies, reports Business Standard.
Fiducials are optically recognizable features often used in computer vision applications. It can be randomly generated and used for various applications including tracking and detecting orientation of objects, the daily added.
Earlier, Amazon had filed another patent application in India seeking approval for a technology that would ensure a quick response from the propellers of a drone in case it detects an object like a human or an animal on its way. This would help the drone avoid hitting a pet or a human being while delivering a payload. The filing of patent applications indicates the company’s keenness to deploy such technology in India.
The company’s unit Amazon Prime Air uses unmanned aerial vehicles to deliver packages to customers in the US. It is looking to expand its drone operations to various countries once it gathers more data on how to improve the safety and reliability of such systems.