#At a glance
- Platform: Epson Moverio smart glasses
- Vehicle: DJI Phantom Pro
- Role: Design and software development
- Focus: Human-computer interaction and hardware integration
#The idea
Traditional drone control separates where the pilot looks from how the camera moves. I wanted to explore a more direct interaction: using the movement of the pilot’s head to control the drone camera and influence flight.
The goal was to make piloting and framing feel more immersive by connecting a natural physical input to the drone’s existing control systems.
#What I built
I developed an Android-based control system for Epson Moverio smart glasses. The application captured head orientation and translated it into commands for a DJI Phantom Pro.
The system supported two related forms of control:
- Adjusting the camera gimbal as the wearer moved their head
- Translating head-driven input into drone movement
#The engineering challenge
The project sat between several systems that had not been designed as one product: smart-glasses sensors, an Android application, DJI’s control interfaces, the camera gimbal, and the aircraft itself.
The core problem was not merely reading sensor values. Raw movement had to become deliberate, bounded control. The interaction needed to distinguish useful input from small or accidental head movements while producing commands appropriate for a physical device operating in the real world.
This required thinking about input mapping, responsiveness, safety boundaries, and the feedback a pilot needs to remain oriented.
#What it demonstrated
The prototype demonstrated that head-driven interaction could be integrated with a commercial drone and used across both camera and movement control.
More importantly, it reflects the kind of engineering work I enjoy: connecting hardware and software in an unusual way, quickly testing whether an interaction is viable, and treating the experience around the technology as part of the technical problem.
#Relevant experience
This approach carries directly into consulting work involving connected devices, sensors, prototypes, and products where several independently complicated systems need to behave as one coherent experience.