Amazon files patent for new drone that sees and hears you

Amazon's filing of a patent on voice-control "pocket drone" technology demonstrates that the company is seeking to develop the work it has done in voice recognition applications and virtual assistant further by bringing it into the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) market. Voice commands for drones have been in development for years. Even in 2010, hobbyists were able to adapt drones to take simple directional commands to navigate pre-mapped areas. Now, basic systems are sold for under 100 online and in stores. And it is possible to modify Amazon Echo through a ground station to deliver commands to commercially sold quadcopters, as demonstrated by a proof-of-concept initiative on hackster.io in February using the Alexa virtual assistant.