The year was 2012 and you were on your way to your local high school to cast your vote for the 44th President of the United States. As you searched for a parking space in the crowded lot, you noticed the many campaign workers who were tirelessly promoting their candidate with colorful political signs and banners.
Fast forward to 2016. You are on your way to your local high school to cast your vote for the 45th President of the United States. As you search for a parking space in the crowded lot, you notice that the sunny blue sky is no longer. Drone shadows dominate the parking pavement. Every candidate from those running for selectman to those seeking Washington employment have their drone pulling political banners over the school’s perimeter.
Farfetched? Not really! In India, engineering students are soon to complete drones designed to reach out to voters in Delhi.
From Neelam Pandey of the Hindustan Times:
Far from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, drones are set to take poll campaigning to new heights in the Capital. A group of students at IIT-Delhi have designed a drone – an unmanned flying vehicle – to carry banners asking people to vote for BJP PM candidate Narendra Modi.
The lightweight equipment can reach a height of 4,000 feet and has a reach of 1,000 metres. The remote-controlled object will fly around open spaces – like parks and grounds – and drop pamphlets in support of Modi as PM, besides acting as a banner in the sky for the Gujarat chief minister.
“The drone is in its final stages of completion and will soon be used to reach out to voters in Delhi. The exterior of the drone will carry the message “Modi for PM” while we can also drop pamphlets through it in the area of campaigning,” said Sanjay Kharwar, who developed the drone with two of his college friends – Brij Kishore Maurya and Tanmay Bunkar.
Today, if you want a banner flying in the neighborhood skies, you’ll spend a minimum of a $1000 for the banner and airplane to pull it. The economics change dramatically with the advent of the banner drone. The promotional applications are endless. When will a banner drone first be used to deliver a proposal of marriage?
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