Hey kids, I looked to see if someone had posted about this yet, but no one had seemed to, but I apologize if this is a duplicate thread. I saw this on Engadget yesterday, and it looks awesomely fun. It’s a remote-controlled quadricopter controlled by an iPhone app with mounted cameras for augmented reality games and so on.
I want one. Badly. :)
There’s an app for that …
Awesome. Like your own spy drone.
Right? It also has augmented reality games so you can “fight” with other drones. ^_^
They even have a full API for controlling the drones.
https://projects.ardrone.org/documents/show/14
Including C code for controlling them. Imagine 3 or 4 of them as a distributed monitoring system.
This is outrageously cool. I wonder what the maximum payload it can carry is? The onboard cameras are fairly low res (QVGA) but if you could mount a small HD camera on there you’d have an amazing filming platform. You might need to custom design a full HD CMOS sensor and a lens attachment, but it should be possible in theory.
We’re using a helicopter camera system right now, but it’s a traditional RC helicopter (albeit a large one that could quite happily take your head off) mounting a fairly decent camera. The results are quite amazing, but it’s pretty difficult to pilot, plus potentially very scary given the expensive equipment that’s hanging off it.
Any idea what the cost on this thing will be?
Now available for preorder. Supposedly shipping starts early September. Three hundred bucks.
I’m very tempted.
US only at this stage. :( Come on, I want to hover this thing over Smaug and get some aerial shots!
Whats the range on this thing? I could definitely see people flying it outside the Wi-fi range and having it splat.
If it’s done how I think it’s done it could easily be made to hover in place when the controller signal is lost. It could even be made to lower itself to a pre-programmed height and wait for you to come and retrieve it/get back in range.
Morberis, if you lose Wi-Fi connection (or if someone calls on the iPhone), it goes into hover mode and then gently lands. So unless you’re flying over water or a vicious pack of wild dogs, you should be fine.
I ordered one after seeing Drastic’s link, then came to my senses and canceled. Might add it to my Xmas list. :)
Looks fantastic - but I figure I’ll be all over it the first couple of days I have it, then it will be in the closet collecting dust. I could think of better ways to spend $200.