Video: Qualcomm shows off Snapdragon Flight smart drone capabilities

Qualcomm and its Snapdragon series of chips may be best known for powering a huge number of smartphones, but the processor giant has recently set its sights on a new market – flying drones. To help showcase that its new Snapdragon Flight platform can do, Qualcomm has released a new video, complete with a rather intense voice over and backing track.

In the video, Qualcomm gives mention to a few useful bits of technology that can be achieved with its Snapdragon Flight development platform. Autonomous flight, motion planning, and obstacle mapping can all be programmed and used via the drone’s built-in sensors and cameras.

For a quick recap, the Snapdragon Flight board is built from a Snapdragon 801 processor, dual-band 2×2 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, and GNSS location chips, Quick Charge technology to power up the batteries, and dual camera support with 4K video.

Speaking of which, Qualcomm also expects that its platform will greatly reduce the cost of offering 4K video capable drones. The company estimates that the cost of a 4K camera drone could fall from $1,200 down to $300 or $400, while battery life could also increase to up to an hour.

Qualcomm will be showing off even more of its Flight platform’s capabilities at CES 2016 next week.