Computer vision is a key technological component that needs to be mastered for Amazon’s to transform shipping as we currently experience it.

Although Amazon’s plan of delivering good and produce through drones sound amazingly futuristic, it still needs to figure out concepts that are taken for granted with traditional courier methods such as how to take-off or drop-off with the order without completely ruining or destroying it.

In order to tackle this problem, Jeff Bezos has put a new crack team of engineers to work on it. The solution they have come up with is related to computer vision.

 The engineers have devised methods for reconstructing geometry from images contextualizing them with their given environment. This technology will now allow the drones to distinguish a swimming pool from that of a patio. Although both are flat surfaces, one will result in your expensive TV being submerged in the pool, which the other will not.

As per Konrad Karner, an engineer working on the project, since neural networks are scalable, one can run “several thousand” computers in parallel which will effectively allow the drones to make safe landing choices.

“The drone will not just see the world around it, but understand its properties,” said Karner.

Although all of this onboard technology is likely to help drones communicate with one another and make safe landing decisions, I wonder whether it will help them recognize the most common objects at their flying approved altitude – birds.