vivo is no stranger to patenting unusual smartphone camera designs. Last year, vivo filed for a patent that involves a removable pop-up camera and a phone design that looks like a candidate for the next APEX concept phone. While there’s much debate as to why you need a detachable camera on a smartphone, some use cases for this concept include remote shooting, multi-cam setups, and different POVs.

If the detachable camera concept is interesting, vivo is set to do things several notches further with this patent filing that involves a smartphone having a detachable camera drone built-in.

Building upon the detachable camera concept last year, this patent reveals a bigger module–one that houses four propellers, three infrared proximity sensors, and two cameras. The said module has its own battery and a detachable mounting bracket with a built-in fingerprint sensor.

Since it has built-in propellers, the said module can be used as a drone, offering different POVs for video recording. Collision concerns are addressed with the three infrared proximity sensors ensuring that the module does not hit any surface. As for controlling the drone, it is presumed that everything is done through the phone, though the use of air gestures are a possibility since it has infrared proximity sensors.

While vivo’s patent may look similar to the AirPix Quadcopter, their approach is definitely going to push the boundaries of technology as it is expected to be drastically smaller. Aside from the size, there are also other concerns like battery capacity and life and the cameras the module will be equipped with.

We may not see an actual smartphone with a detachable drone in the near future, but it just shows that vivo has a broad set of ideas that might seem to be a great one–as long as the tech allows it.