Amazon may use its drone delivery service to analyze customer’s homes, offering ‘recommendations’ from its store or third-party services like gardening or roof repairs (see our review of the best drones).
The patent, granted on Wednesday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), shows how the drones would use cameras to take photos during its descent. The photos would then be sent to a computer system to be analyzed, and recommendations would appear as mobile notifications or banner adverts when the customer visits the storefront.
See Also: How drones will change our retail experience, our cities and our skies
Amazon provides an example of what the recommendation could be: “The one or more service provider computers may analyze the data and identify that the roof of the location is in disrepair and in need of service. Subsequently, the one or more service provider computers may generate and provide a recommendation to the customer informing them of the identified property and offering an item or service that is appropriate for the identified property (e.g., a roof repair service recommendation).” US
Another example would be fertilizer or an arborist, if the drone spots dying trees in the back garden.
The introduction of local services provides Amazon with another route into everyday lives. The company did not say how it would find all the local services and how it would display them.
For customers that don’t want their house analyzed, Amazon has said it will be opt-in, if it ever becomes a reality. Drones that arrive at houses would still be required to record video in-case of an accident or technical fault, but would not send the data back to a commercial system.
Amazon has filed a number of weird drone patents over the past few months, including a zeppelin that acts as a mobile hub for deliveries and a drone beehive for deliveries in city centers.
