Drone for home?

The price of small drones keeps falling while capabilities go up. There's a lot of competition between manufacturers and that's a good thing. I'm interested in the lower end of the market. I would not want to spend serious money for something that I'd crash in the trees or land in the lake.

Until recently I always thought of them as toys. Some of the video I've seen has made me reconsider. They can be really useful scouting devices. A drone with the ability to stream live video can be pretty handy. A lot of boaters are using them. Fishermen use them to look for fish. Divers check out dive sites. Sailors can scope out narrow passes before risking their boat.

Property owners are using them to keep an eye on their land. Ranchers can send them zipping along to check out the fence line in short order.

Recently I've been contemplating their potential for homestead security. A lot of remote homesteads have various alarms to protect their property. They range from simple audio alarms to security cameras with video, sound and even night vision. Some people have sensors just around their main gate, others protect their whole perimeter.

A drone could make a good supplement to other security measures. Imagine a simple audio alarm is triggered. The drone could be dispatched to see what tripped it. Even sophisticated camera systems could be supplemented with drone use. While a video feed could provide a limited picture, a drone's eye view reaches further and could zoom in for more information.

What got me thinking about this is that my dog ran something off my property. There was a lot of barking, growing and running around. Never did figure out what upset it. It would have been pretty handy to be able to get a bird's eye view of the action. The dog's great, but she gets just as upset by a bold squirrel as she does by a bear. It would have been good to know what triggered her.

I'm not yet in the market, but if trends continue I may be sooner rather than later.

-Sixbears