Flying into the future

Drones are being built that can deliver pizzas, herd sheep and steal your identity. Wang Shanshan and Yang Yang tell you what you need to know about the machines that may be a blessing - or a curse.

Would you be pleased if you ordered a pizza and instead of arriving via a deliveryman on a scooter, it is flown across the sky and dropped at your feet? Or even better, you don't order a pizza but one gets delivered anyway, thanks to a misguided drone?

Online retail giant Amazon.com made headlines in 2013 when it announced that within five years, its "Octocopter" drones will fly packages directly to your doorstep in 30 minutes.