ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,360,531, issued on July 15, was assigned to Snap Inc. (Santa Monica, Calif.).

"Stabilization and navigation of an autonomous drone" was invented by David G. Fliszar (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) and Russell Douglas Patton (Playa Vista, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Systems, computer readable medium and methods for autonomous drone stabilization and navigation are disclosed. Example methods include capturing an image using an image capturing device of the autonomous drone, processing the image to identify an object, and navigating the autonomous drone relative to the object to one or more waypoints. The autonomous drone navigates init...