The online racing simulator
A serious xmas toy - 2010 style
1
(30 posts, started )
A serious xmas toy - 2010 style
Get your own personal iAttack / iSpy drone, control it and view the live video feeds through your iPhone.

Is this cool or what !

"Rarely has a technology caused so much excitement when unpacked in our labs as the Parrot AR.Drone. Priced at AUD $349, this is a serious geek's toy, with a heritage that stretches back to the US Air Force drones that attack the Taliban from on high in Afghanistan. Packed with gyroscopes, accelerometers and sensors - all co-ordinated by a computer chip and software - this four-rotor machine will fly and beam video from its two cameras back to your iPhone, which acts as its remote control.

If you want to give your neighbours a rude shock, you could remotely pilot it across the street and have it hover above their backyard or in front of their window! But when testing it, we preferred to dwell on the insanely fun applications, such as dog fights with other flying craft in our offices or buzzing unsuspecting staff from other magazines on the same floor as APC's techies.

With a Wi-Fi range of 50m (it's actually a tiny flying Wi-Fi access point that connects to your iPhone or iPad) you can send the Drone around corners, up stairwells, around bushes and basically anywhere from which you get a live ideo feed from its navigation camera. The carbon tube craft has a lengthy flying time of between 10 and 20 minutes, another feature that sets it apart from other battery-powered remotely controlled craft.

Most of all, you don’t have to learn complicated controls to fly the AR.Drone. Its tilt sensors let you control pitch, roll and yaw just by moving your iPhone. It took us about a minute to figure out how to control it and have it flying around the various obstacles in our office. Its stability in enclosed environments is astonishing. Drop the controls or left it fly out of its 50m range, and it just stops dead in mid-air (eventually landing gently if the control link has been lost).

The Parrod AR.Drone can carry a payload too, a more sinister connection to the military drones in Afghanistan - but since it's only 100grams, you're not going to drop anything that causes much damage.

We think this is the start of a drone revolution. There is already a similar quadricopter drone beign employed by police and security forces around the world, who use it to hover above dangerous situations or even check out suspicious activity where it might be dangerous to send in officers. Normal people might use it to check out if there's broken tiles up on the roof or maybe send it down the road to see what's causing a traffic hold up.

The Parrot control software on the iPhone also comes with augmented reality games, in which you can fly the Drone around and shoot missiles at imaginary craft. If the US Force says the next generation of fighter planes will be pilotless, the Drone could be training the fighter pilots of the future.

The Parrot AR.Drone will retail for AUD $349 and will be available from Telstra and Fonezone stores from next week. Check out the official trailer below."
http://apcmag.com/your-personal-spy-drone.htm#
#2 - JJ72
I laugh at any who bought this overpriced piece of junk, the cost to make this is merely peanuts
Quote from JJ72 :I laugh at any who bought this overpriced piece of junk, the cost to make this is merely peanuts

+1 some people have to justify spending good money on rubbish they don't need
Like - Hands up if you missed the word 'TOY' !

Who said this was neccessary ?, most of the crap in your life isn't neccessary. At least this is fun and it cost's less all up than the other crap !

And feel free to build your own.
I always build toys, for myself and my kids. My medium is scrap metal I find it the best for easy recycling. Just doing my part to reduce carbon emissions.

I find it hard to live a disposable lifestyle, buying the latest and greatest thing is wasteful. Why not buy/build things that will last years not hours?
Quote from lap traffic nz :I always build toys, for myself and my kids. My medium is scrap metal I find it the best for easy recycling. Just doing my part to reduce carbon emissions.

I find it hard to live a disposable lifestyle, buying the latest and greatest thing is wasteful. Why not buy/build things that will last years not hours?

That's why I love NZ
#7 - JJ72
It's isn't about need, it's just paying this kind of money for some toy you can get bored within an hour and never touch it again is silly, it's just a larger scale of those mini RC helicopters $10 a piece with a fancy gimmick.

You can have a lot more fun with other stuff with that budget.
You can have dozens and even more of toys with that price. And i can bet that you can have more fun with xx amount of toys than with that piece of junk.
ive seen this drone about 6 months ago in a near electronic store.
way overpriced...and whats even worse - can only be controlled by apple products...lol
Quote from [RCG]Boosted :whats even worse - can only be controlled by apple products...lol

Commin to a starbucks near you....

Depending on the quality of the IMU/autopilot it may be a reasonably good deal. A Futaba flybarless system costs roughly the same, and that doesn't even include the airframe. Keep in mind that quadrotors are not stable at all, the only way to keep them properly stable is a good IMU.

Oh well, why am I even trying to defend the price of this thing. Some people spend this kind of money on a friggin' plastic car bumper. At least this thing contains some new technology.

edit: Even worse, http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=71714 , 400gbp for a license plate which does absolutely nothing at all.
#12 - 5haz
I was shocked to discover there wasn't some kind of government conspiracy in all this.
I made an areal drone once. Using a wireless webcam and a cheap RC Heli. Wasn't great but did the job. Range on the cam could have been better, but I had a budget of £20, so all* of the parts came from eBay.









* Excluding the laptop the video was relayed to, which I already had.
seems alright, but overpriced.
So, it's an overpriced, pointless, non conspiricy theory, waste of time.

I still think it's pretty cool tech, using your phone to fly a drone is definately getting into sci fi.
Especially one with a payload and virtual missiles.

Loosen up guys, I'm detecting some very repressed people who can't see the fun in toys.
I thought you were gamers ?
#16 - JJ72
nah, we just ain't spoiled brats who buy every Iphone incarnation "just because it is cool."

I am all for RC goodies, mini helis, mini tanks, but this has gone far beyond the price point of a gimmick toy unless you are.....well.....pretty loaded, to spend that much money on something you play for a few hours. I can buy a set of lego technic for that sum and play it for years.
I don't think this is overpriced. Me and a mate built something similar using available parts, transceivers, assembly code and trial and error a few years back, it didn't work properly and the overall cost was way above this.

It's a well-priced product for what it is. An expensive toy sure, but a ****ing cool one.
I've ordered one for all my iPhones and my AppleTV.
Hmm, Why does it gotta be a apple product? Why can't it be a windows product?


y u gotta b racist apple?
Because if it was a windows product, it'd crash.
because at that price Windows users wouldn't touch it.
If it were windows product it would have reasonable price.
If I ever see one flying over my house I'm shooting it down.
Quote from wheel4hummer :If I ever see one flying over my house I'm shooting it down.

at that price it must have insurance anyway...
1

A serious xmas toy - 2010 style
(30 posts, started )
FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG