Patent ID: 9581999
Date: 2017-02-28
CPC Classifications: B64C,G01C,G05D,G06K,G06Q,H04N

Claim:
1. Apparatus comprising: a drone comprising a wireless transceiver, a video camera and a plurality of distance measuring directional sensors; a server; a base station within an enclosed seller property switchable on and off by the seller and having a wireless transceiver and a landing pad for the drone, the base station being configured to (a) employ said wireless transceiver to receive buyer-transmitted flight control commands transmitted through the server from a buyer site and (b) control said drone to fly within the enclosed seller property to provide a view of the enclosed property to the buyer at the buyer site in response at least in part to said buyer-transmitted flight control commands; wherein the drone further comprises a programmed processor or programmed computer programmed to: establish a wireless connection between the drone and the base station; respond to a signal from the base station received over the wireless connection to activate the plurality of distance measuring directional sensors and the video camera; subsequently cause sensor signals from said plurality of distance measuring directional sensors and a video signal feed from said video camera providing a view of said enclosed property to be transmitted to the base station; and follow flight control commands from the base station received over the wireless connection between the drone and base station, said flight control commands including buyer-transmitted flight control commands, to cause the drone to fly within the enclosed seller property along a path dictated by said flight control commands; wherein, in a free flight procedure, the drone flight path is determined entirely by buyer-transmitted flight control commands and, in a pre-programmed flight procedure, the drone flight path is determined by pre-programmed flight commands and buyer-transmitted flight control commands; wherein the server is configured to provide a website to the buyer, the website being responsive to a buyer log-in to serve a plurality of web pages to the buyer (a) showing drone status at the base station, (b) enabling the buyer to select the free flight option for controlling the drone flight path or the pre-programmed flight option for controlling the drone flight path and (c) enabling the buyer to generate said buyer-transmitted flight control commands; the server being further configured to forward the buyer-transmitted flight control commands to the selected base station; and wherein the selected base station is configured to forward the video signal feed from the drone to the server and the server is configured to forward the video signal feed to a web page served to the buyer.