TRNDLabs designed a tiny Pokédrone to help Pokémon GO players catch 'em all
By Tech Wire Asia | 15 July, 2016
YES, we know Pokémon GO hasn't been released in Asia yet – despite (evil) rumors that were making the rounds on social media on Thursday – but it doesn't mean we can't prepare ourselves. And seeing how two men in California walked right off a cliff while trying to catch Pokémon… TRNDLabs' Pokédrone might just come in useful.
TRNDLabs is an actual drone developer, whose claim to fame is the SKEYE Pico Drone, which the company says is the world's smallest drone.The Pokédrone appears to be a modified version of the Pico Drone but with special GPS features that apparently lets players catch Pokémon that are placed in hard-to-reach locations.
"Once connected via WiFi to your phone, the Pokémon GO app uses the Pokédrone's GPS and camera instead of the phone's GPS and camera," said the company on its website. "The drone can also hover in one place making it super easy to catch 'em all for everyone who is more into Pokémon than drones."
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The video features a handheld drone controller to which the user attached their smartphone to. Once the drone is within view of a Pokémon, the user can "throw" a Pokéball (a device used in the game to capture the characters) at it and catch it.
However, The Verge is skeptical that the Pokédrone will really take off – citing possible copyright issues with Nintendo due to the word 'Poké' in the name, as well as the use of a spoofed GPS input, which could be against the terms of use of the game.
TRNDLabs told The Verge that they hope to work directly with Nintendo to legitimize the Pokédrone, by incorporating the GPS and camera inputs from the drone to the app. If not, they plan to release the Pokédrone independently and rely on jailbreaking.
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