Amazon files patent for delivery drone customer verification and gesture recognition

Amazon has filed a patent for technology enabling its delivery drones to verify the identity of the person receiving the delivery with facial recognition or another technology, and then recognize both audible cues and visible gestures to follow delivery instructions, GeekWire reports.

The patent describes “human interaction with unmanned aerial vehicles,” and is technically a continuation of a patent application filed in 2014. The individual receiving the delivery could also be identified through a mobile device.

The drone could use standard and infrared cameras, depth and motion sensors, microphones, speakers, and noise filters to interact with their surroundings. The speakers could even be used to issue verbal warnings to people nearby.

Drones would communicate with a gesture database to recognize instructions, and could possibly even add new gestures to the database based on interactions with customers. A previous patent suggests they could also use “automatic speech recognition (ASR) and natural language understanding (NLU) capabilities” to support dialogue, and possibly Alexa integration, according to TechRadar.

In January Amazon joined the FIDO Alliance’s board of directors.

Article Topics

Amazon  |  biometrics  |  facial recognition  |  gesture recognition  |  patents