Smartphones, revolutionary enough for doing what they do, are also having a huge impact through the repurposing of their components, aiding development of drones and robotics. From Alistair Barr and Scott Martin’s USA Today article about Google’s latest “moonshot”:

“Google has succeeded on big long-term projects before, such as YouTube and Android, and the company’s newer moonshots, such as self-driving cars and the Glass wearable computing platform, are beginning to show early commercial promise.

Robotics has been considered an emerging technology for decades, but for the most part it has been a disappointment. That may be changing, especially in the area of drones, according to Chris Dixon, a partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. 

One of the main drivers of this is the rapidly falling cost of sensors and other components that are needed to maneuver drones and other robots. 

‘The promise of robotics is finally coming to fruition through drones,’ Dixon said. ‘Several factors have come together to make them viable.’

The price of components such as GPS, cellular connections, small, energy efficient processors and tiny cameras, has dropped dramatically because they are already made in such high volume for smartphones, he explained.”