There is a African Drone startup that is helping farmers by providing air surveillance hoping to reduce costs and optimize crop yields. This alone stands out to me ver much because I am aware that a lot of Africa is rural areas so that would mean people depend on agriculture. I believe this is an extremely important and necessary tool. This company, founded by James Paterson is looking to use artificial intelligence. It looks like a lot of companies are using artificial intelligence. According to the article, Paterson grew up in a farm near Cape Town. Someone experiencing how difficult it is to do something and that they are doing something about it makes me very amazed. Basically the way they are doing this is by using computers to intercept pictures from satellites. Then the drones and mobile phones and provide predictive will use information on crop health. The information captured from the drones will let people see where pests and other problems. After reading this article, I believe that this idea will become very successful.
One interesting thing to note that is the young company caught Google’s attention. They participated the company’s Launchpad Accelerator program.
http://money.cnn.com/2018/02/15/technology/aerobotics-farm-app-drones/index.html
Ramar Parham
This is really neat! I thought for sure one of the emerging technologies to be the first to interact positively with third-world countries would have been cloud-based web services like AWS or Microsoft Azure. It certainly seems like they could implement the part of their platform that intercepts pictures on the cloud. Regardless, I think it’s wonderful that Patterson is looking to improve the lives of those less fortunate than himself using new technologies.
This sounds like a fantastic idea, especially in a place where agriculture is a way of life. In my eyes drones have been underutilized since their explosion onto the market several years ago. Using the drones for security, a pest/vermin deterrent and even to fertilize the crops could improve the farmers workload and increase productivity. The amazing thing about this story is showing the spread of technology, and how these formerly technologically isolated areas are utilizing and improving tech to fit their needs. Technology used in tandem with traditional methods is always interesting to see, and sometimes amazing to see how people have adapted it. I hope this spreads throughout the community so more people are inspired to create and improve their way of life.