Gather up any presents you may have received this winter, return them to the store, and take the cash. The ultimate gadget has just arrived. Parrot, a French company better known for making sleek Bluetooth accessories, has released videos of its latest product: a four-prop quadricopter with video cameras that you control with your iPhone. This isn’t some dinky mall-bought plaything, the AR-Drone from Parrot has amazing controls, great vertical movement capabilities, and it relays video straight to your phone via WiFi. It’s a retail spy-drone. And it plays augmented reality video games. That’s right, you can play AR video games using the drone’s camera while it’s in flight. I am totally floored. Check out the flight video, and the AR game video after the break.
iPhone's never seen such a bad-ass accessory. Bad-ass-essory?
The AR-Drone is amazingly similar to the military drone controlled by an iPhone at MIT. The MIT drone has slightly better programming (it can run patrols or surveillance sweeps) but otherwise the two seem nearly identical. That’s incredible. Parrot is selling a near-military quality drone. There are so many ways, mostly legal, that AR-Drone could be used. Surely the majority of people will want a cool RC helicopter that plays AR games. But I can bet that militias, civilian border patrols, and other para-military groups are going to want to get their hands on this as well. Easy to control but high quality retail drones like this one could change the way we view household robots – they’re not just for play anymore.
The controls for the AR-Drone are fairly simple, relying on tilting the phone, or touching the screen to control rotation, tilt, and acceleration. An earlier video of a protoype AR-Drone demonstrates this a little better in the following:
Parrot has setup a YouTube channel to carry all the important info about the AR-Drone. You can watch more videos of the bots as they get tested for the first time, calibrate their vertical camera, and run their batteries in the snow. This thing is just so freakin’ cool. Evidently everyone seems to think so as Parrot’s website is over capacity for traffic. We’ll keep you up to date as pricing and availability become known. Anyone who gets their hands on one of these things should let us know…and then send me their AR-Drone. Please.
[photo and video credits: Parrot]
Comments
i have seen this on Cebit Hannover
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVaijfrni1A
mfg Papoose2k
This is definitely one of a kind gadget for your iPhone, i still can't believe if this one is for real. It looks really nice, it is going to be one of the best selling accessories, but again i am not sure if it would be available for an 'affordable' rate.
Am i the only one seeing a problem here?
This type of technology will make it very easy for terrorists to deliver an explosive payload into a military compound in Afghanistan of Iraq, or a civilian target for that matter. They won’t even need suicide bombers anymore.
Nice one RobR, Thanks for giving all suicide bommers that idea! if you had kept your gob shut, you might have saved the world
Actually, in the 90′s I wondered why terrorists wouldn’t use passenger planes as a weapon. Apparantly, keeping mum about it didn’t help.
You know, You’re absolutely right. With it’s immense payload capability, it might be able to carry an M80 or Cherry Bomb and totally inflict all kinds of havok. After all there are no other remote control helicopters or planes available to terrorists just yet. Man, I could see it now, all those chic Jihadists with their trendy iPhones…
“With it’s immense payload capability, it might be able to carry an M80 or Cherry Bomb and totally inflict all kinds of havok.”
If you had read something other than tech blogs, you might have known that Abdulmutalibaba from Flight 253 didn´t need any immense capability, just underwear.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_explosive
“After all there are no other remote control helicopters or planes available to terrorists just yet.”
Nope, until now rc helicopters with outdoor capability and built/in camera were very difficult to get.
Have you even read the article? How it’s a “retail spy drone” comparable with “military drones experimented with at MIT”?
Governments don’t spend millions to develop drones without a reason. You’re a fool if you think terrorist are not interested in this technology.
Wow…
You have me convinced. RC technology has been and is capable of many things. This little device for your iPhone is not capable of many things. Hence HotSauce’s sarcasm.
“If I read something other than tech blogs.” Successful troll is successful.
Your link to Wikipedia has me convinced you have done your homework. Shall I link all mine?
Any modern RC device, Heli, Plane, Car can all carry things on them. Weight limited. Why the problem? You only mentioned plastic explosives, aren’t there other dangerous things a RC vehicle could deliver? Like a million scorpions or a bunch of baby spiders?
Stop listening to fear and think for yourself! Otherwise, the terrorists get what they want, Terror.
Wow, you americans are all so brave now, at least after some years without a succesful attack on your “homeland”.
Afraid of terror? No way! How times have changed.. right after 911 americans were so terrified they were ven afraid to get near high-rise buildings or trash-bins, for fear of explosives
Oh, I forgot to mention the FAILED attempt of C4 pants. Drug dealers have been smuggling drugs on commercial airliners for decades. Now we wait for spineless suicide bombers to smuggle bombs.
Until Homeland Security strip searches, cavity searches, full body x-rays and prohibits luggage to fly with passengers, I guess we will all have to live with that thought that something could happen.
Surely I digress. Maybe a terrorist could fly this new gadget around the plane and make us all duck…
Am i the only one seeing a problem here?
This type of technology will make it very easy for terrorists to deliver an explosive payload into a military compound in Afghanistan of Iraq, or a civilian target for that matter. They won’t even need suicide bombers anymore.
Nice one RobR, Thanks for giving all suicide bommers that idea! if you had kept your gob shut, you might have saved the world
Actually, in the 90′s I wondered why terrorists wouldn’t use passenger planes as a weapon. Apparantly, keeping mum about it didn’t help.
You know, You’re absolutely right. With it’s immense payload capability, it might be able to carry an M80 or Cherry Bomb and totally inflict all kinds of havok. After all there are no other remote control helicopters or planes available to terrorists just yet. Man, I could see it now, all those chic Jihadists with their trendy iPhones…
“With it’s immense payload capability, it might be able to carry an M80 or Cherry Bomb and totally inflict all kinds of havok.”
If you had read something other than tech blogs, you might have known that Abdulmutalibaba from Flight 253 didn´t need any immense capability, just underwear.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_explosive
“After all there are no other remote control helicopters or planes available to terrorists just yet.”
Nope, until now rc helicopters with outdoor capability and built/in camera were very difficult to get.
Have you even read the article? How it’s a “retail spy drone” comparable with “military drones experimented with at MIT”?
Governments don’t spend millions to develop drones without a reason. You’re a fool if you think terrorist are not interested in this technology.
Wow…
You have me convinced. RC technology has been and is capable of many things. This little device for your iPhone is not capable of many things. Hence HotSauce’s sarcasm.
“If I read something other than tech blogs.” Successful troll is successful.
Your link to Wikipedia has me convinced you have done your homework. Shall I link all mine?
Any modern RC device, Heli, Plane, Car can all carry things on them. Weight limited. Why the problem? You only mentioned plastic explosives, aren’t there other dangerous things a RC vehicle could deliver? Like a million scorpions or a bunch of baby spiders?
Stop listening to fear and think for yourself! Otherwise, the terrorists get what they want, Terror.
Wow, you americans are all so brave now, at least after some years without a succesful attack on your “homeland”.
Afraid of terror? No way! How times have changed.. right after 911 americans were so terrified they were ven afraid to get near high-rise buildings or trash-bins, for fear of explosives
Oh, I forgot to mention the FAILED attempt of C4 pants. Drug dealers have been smuggling drugs on commercial airliners for decades. Now we wait for spineless suicide bombers to smuggle bombs.
Until Homeland Security strip searches, cavity searches, full body x-rays and prohibits luggage to fly with passengers, I guess we will all have to live with that thought that something could happen.
Surely I digress. Maybe a terrorist could fly this new gadget around the plane and make us all duck…
That is the coolest thing I’ve seen in a very long time. Just wait until they’re beetle-sized
That is the coolest thing I’ve seen in a very long time. Just wait until they’re beetle-sized
Peeping Toms around the world are rejoicing
Peeping Toms around the world are rejoicing
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That’s all I really have to say about that.
:[ ]
That’s all I really have to say about that.