I suppose there is hope, just that his demonstration example isnt exactly the best.
All helicopters already have the majority of weight under the rotors for stability, not sure why this guy made such a big deal? But the CF sphere cage was a good idea.
"Think of this use - a soldier in the field needs to see in a hard to reach area, like check out a sniper tower or over a building . . . he just takes it out of his backpack and throws it up . . . it immediately hovers and sends video feed back to his visor. The controller could be a simple x/y joystick with a single button for 'fly'. No special autonomy needed outside of a balancing IMU."
That still just sounds like a quadrocopter with a spherical frame, with the right programming it is hands-off flying, and can recover from crazy angles.