For the past few years, drones have been the go-to devices for capturing stunning aerial photographs for weddings, events, vacations and other personal occasions. However, as drone technology becomes more mainstream, they’ve become valuable in quite a number of very interesting and practical ventures as well.

Following are Top Five (5) Business and Personal Cool Uses for Drones:

1. Search and Rescue Missions

Because they can safely fly low on the ground and into difficult access areas, drones have been utilized in a number of search and rescue missions. Like traditional helicopters, drones are fast, agile and can capture high-definition aerial shots but at a significantly lower cost. Some drones are particularly tough and built for these missions, like the YI Erida. This drone comes with a full carbon fiber body that is five times stronger than steel and can capture video recordings at 30 fps — for up to 120 minutes of recording time when equipped with a 4K action camera. These features are particularly helpful in monitoring forest fires or floods.

2. Surveillance

In the area of surveillance and security, drones have been used for surveilling prisons, country borders, buildings, and even large crowds and gatherings during protests. Because they are a lot smaller than helicopters, drones can carry out monitoring safely and quietly — without providing any risk to humans and animals alike. They are also quicker to deploy, less expensive, and easier to camouflage — all these making the drone a perfect surveillance tool for a lot of companies.

3. Real Estate Photography

Real estate agents have discovered drones to be one of the most useful marketing tools for selling homes and properties. By providing aerial shots and videos, these agents allow the buyers to have a look at the surrounding landscapes and neighborhood of the house or property that they’re planning to purchase. In fact, house listings with videos have more views than those without. By seeing the view of the surroundings, buyers are more often enticed purchase a property.

4. Mining Operations

Mining companies are now sending out drones to carry out routine mining work that can prove unsafe and even dangerous for mine workers. Tasks such as inspecting power lines and equipment, modeling and mapping out mining areas, and even searching for minerals and ore in deep mine pits. Because of this, mine workers are now saved from doing a number of hazardous and dangerous tasks.

5. Product Deliveries

Amazon has recently patented a drone technology capable of delivering small parcels and packages in local areas. Although they’ve yet to start on the actual process, a lot of companies are following suit. Dominos was able to deliver pizzas with their Domidrone. Although these are just experiments and FAA is still working out the kinks in the guidelines and usage restrictions, these companies and retail businesses are now in the process of refining the methods to make their projects a reality.

And there you have it, five interesting yet practical Cool Uses for Drones. This is just the tip of the iceberg as businesses and companies begin to integrate drone technology more and more into their projects and service offerings.