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drone

Say hello to the latest reason to get excited if you own an iPhone.

Using the handsets accelerometer and connecting via Wi-Fi you can fly the Parrot AR.Drone!

As if that wasn’t cool enough it has two on-board cameras that beam a pilots-eye view right to your phones screen.

This means that you don’t need to see the craft in order to pilot it – the great outdoor beckons!

If you do loose connection then autopilot kicks in to gently land the drone.

If you’d rather stay in the safety of home then you can use the included foam propeller hubs to avoid injuring pets, loved ones and decor.

Now for the best bit! Yup, it gets better!

The AR part of the name stands for the very 2010 Augmented-reality.

This enables you to create race circuits around your area that are superimposed onto the iPhones display as well as giving you a variety of games that involve shooting robots, dodging lasers and dog-fighting with another chopper.

Being AR there’s every chance that you could fly against anyone, anywhere in the world!

No doubt developers will be working on something seeing as Parrot has also released an API (Application Programming Interface) for the little blighter.

Parrot say that the AR.Drone is “affordable” but that’s the only hint on pricing at the moment. It’s due for release later this year and you can sign up for email updates at the Parrot Web site.

Check out the vid below and prepare to want!

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DARPA Make Hummingbird Robot Spy

by Jay Garrett on July 6, 2009

hummingbirddrone_01You’ve got to hand it to DARPA – The brains working on tech for the Pentagon have some far-out ideas including this robotic hummingbird-based drone.

Could little hummingbird spies be helping in futuristic espionage? Not just yet…

Program manager Todd Hylton is aiming for “an approximately 10-gram aircraft that can hover for extended periods, can fly at forward speeds up to 10 meters per second, can withstand 2.5-meter-per-second wind gusts.”

At the mo the little robobird can only fly for about 20 seconds at a time.

But, knowing the speed that technology, brains and Government spending goes there could soon be those robotic hummingbirds sneaking into people’s homes and offices.

My birdwatching to me to Wired where I found this :)

Check out the vid of the drone below going through its tests.

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Miami-Dade Drones

March 27, 2008 Click to read more →

Honeywell is hoping that their new drones will soon be employed by the Miami-Dade police department.
The plan is to use them in ”urban areas with an eye toward full-fledged employment in crime fighting.”
Apparently the department is going to use it in “tactical situations as an extra set of eyes.”
So, next time you go for a stroll along [...]