App lets filmmakers with disabilities fly drones by head movement

On the Sunshine Coast, aerial footage of the coastline and hinterland is coming from a pilot who cannot hold a camera. Christopher Hills, a 30-year-old University of the Sunshine Coast design student, has built a mobile app that lets him fly a drone with head movements and switches mounted on the headrest of his wheelchair. He is now field-testing it, after six years of work with a software developer.

The setup replaces the need to physically operate the drone. Hills uses switches and head movements to control the aircraft’s flight path, drawing on Apple devices, an Xbox Adaptive Controller and DJI drones. He also uses a computerized voice assistant to communicate. The result is a control system shaped around his difficulties walking, using his hands and speaking.

Hills’ route to the app began with storytelling. His parents helped him make video shorts as a child, and he later earned cinematography and film production qualifications before starting design studies in 2023. A Design Methods course gave him the structure to frame and iterate the idea. His first solo film, “Everyone Has the Right to Fly,” documented his quest to become a certified drone pilot.

Concretely, the app gives people who cannot physically hold a video camera a way to create aerial images themselves. Dr. Leah Barclay, a senior lecturer in design at the University of the Sunshine Coast, says the same approach could widen access to drone work in wildlife monitoring, farming and agriculture. The university is already discussing how to integrate it into research projects, including flying drones with older adults in its Aging Well Creative Lab.

The technology remains in testing. Hills is working toward securing approval from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority for the app, while offering drone-flight training and inviting people to join its beta program. He says the current design meets his own needs and could serve a wider range of users with a few changes.