Takeoff, landing, and turning with the finger ring and body controller
Toy drones are scheduled to be released in the second half of this year, and racing drones in the first half of next year.

Drone piloting is no ordinary skill. You hold the remote control with both hands, your head is pointed straight ahead, and the aircraft can barely move forward.

Since I've already bought it, it's too early to give up!

"Even the practice process is fun," he said. The good news is that an intuitive controller that can be operated with one hand has been developed.



By moving the sensor-equipped ring over the main controller, you can control the drone's takeoff, landing, and even direction. This Is Engineering plans to release a toy drone in the second half of this year and a professional drone in the first half of next year.

Toy drones can transmit and receive over RF bands up to 250 meters, while professional drones can transmit and receive up to 2.5 kilometers. The professional drones, in particular, are also releasing a controller Shift Extension that allows smartphones to be mounted on the existing main controller. The connected controller can download video in real time using the FPV (field-per-view) function. The added wheel and buttons can be customized for user convenience, such as speed control and video zoom in and out. The drone's GPS function prevents drone loss and provides a hovering function to maintain horizontal stability. In addition, autonomous flight capabilities are also being researched.


As the intuitive controller caught my eye, I asked if it could be used on drones already on the market.

Lee Jae-won, a member of the management support team at This Is Engineering, responded, "Our transmitters and receivers can be used on other drones. Each company uses its own protocol, so collaboration is necessary. Since we also sell our own drones, we're also considering packaging options. We plan to finalize our collaboration by the time we launch our professional drone next year, along with the transmitters and receivers."

In addition to an intuitive drone controller, This Is Engineering has also developed TIE Ground, which uses LEDs to communicate in real time. By placing two carpets in different locations, the user can see where the other person is stepping on the carpet, sharing their footsteps with the other person. This technology is currently being discussed in collaboration with Hanyang University for use in medical devices that track patient movements and as a rehabilitation device.

Launched in 2015 by Seoul National University students, This Is Engineering applied for a patent related to UAV drone control technology that same year and won an Excellence Award at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering's Convergence Knowledge-Based Creative Startup Competition and an Encouragement Award at the Global Youth Entrepreneurship Competition. The company also won the grand prize at Be the Rocket Season 2, a startup support competition.

Regarding future plans, Lee Jae-won said, “Although it has not yet been launched in the domestic market, we do not consider the domestic market as our main market. “We launched on Kickstarter last year and established a corporation in the US market, and we are also thinking about expanding into Europe and the US,” he said.