There is no denying that everyone could benefit from a little vacation time. Studies have shown there are numerous benefits of even a short vacation. A vacation gives you time to reconnect to what is important in your life, making you understand what it is you are working for. After time off from work, many employees return re-energized and motivated. Students return to school focused and ready to learn. Memories of time spent relaxing or adventuring give people something to strive to return to in the future. However, this year most of the world has had to cancel any vacation or travel plans due to the widespread of COVID-19. Traveling is simply not safe right now as the majority of the world is still being cautioned to social distance and remain home. People are becoming stir crazy, frustrated, depressed, and agitated after being cooped up for so long. But what if there was a way to use a bit of imagination and still go on a vacation from the safety of your home?

With what some people refer to as digital teleportation, or live delivery, drones could be used to give you the experience of traveling to faraway places while you sit comfortably in your own home. The “traveler” wears a virtual reality headset that is connected to the live feed of a drone connected through a highspeed network. There would be no lag in the delivery of the video being captured by the drone to the viewer’s headset. Instantly the viewer could travel from New York to the Grand Canyon or any place else in the world where a drone operator is ready to go. The viewer can even communicate with the operator, asking them to focus the drone on a specific detail, linger over a vista, or speed through an area to give the viewer an adrenaline rush.

Unfortunately, a live delivery drone to virtual reality experience is not commercially available yet, but it’s not far off. NewBeeDrones is a company based out of San Diego, CA that builds custom First Person View (FPV) racing drone kits. FPV drone racing is not something new, it’s a very competitive sport, but it’s not quite the same as a live drone delivered virtual reality experience. As Daryn Huang, NewBeeDrone’s chief financial officer said, they are in the process of creating a system that would allow for smooth HD transfer of drone footage to a virtual reality program. “It’s more of a proof-of-concept now,” he said, “but this shows people what it can be like to fly.” Although, similar live virtual reality drone deliver does exist for military use, but not of the caliber that would lend to a way to virtually replace a vacation.

Still, drones are offering people stuck at home a way to escape and experience the wonders of traveling around the world. There are thousands of incredible drone videos posted on travel vlogs and YouTube that people have taken from their own travels or just in their own little corner of the world. The cameras on drones are of such high quality that the images they capture are simply stunning. Often set to music that heightens the experience you can get a sweeping, bird’s eye view of nearly anyplace you could dream of traveling to. Some of these videos are so impressive they could have been produced by a Hollywood studio.

Tim Browning is an art director and concept artist for Hollywood and well as a drone operator for the BBC and Natural Geographic. He also is a drone operator for a luxury travel company. Several times a year, before the pandemic struck, he would tag along on someone’s exotic vacations, documenting it with top of the line drone equipment. He gets to visit locales like the Arctic poles, Africa, tropical islands, and more. As part of the luxury tour group, he has access to the best possible experiences at each location. When the trip is over he edits the drone footage to share with the vacationers to do with as they please, reliving their adventures or sharing them with the world.

Many of the drone videos that photographers like Tim create can be viewed through a virtual reality headset as well. As these gadgets become more common, their quality increases while their prices drop. This means that almost anyone can afford a set to get an immersive vacation like experience. The fact that people are saving money by not being able to physically travel, makes a virtual reality vacation even more available. True, a virtual reality vacation will never be the same as actually going out into the world and creating first hand experiences, but in a time like now, with a little imagination, it could just be the next best thing.

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