Cool Geek Toy: AR Drone

AR Drone A colleague at Zynga recently brought in his new AR Drone – I now have Christmas Present Envy.  AR Done is a product of Parrot.

Videos

Although I don’t (yet) own one, I’ve had my eye on these for a while.  The Drone seems like a candidate for the top geek toy of 2010.  You can view some videos on their web site, or YouTube.

What’s Cool

I think what’s cool about the the AR Drone is its integration of several innovations

  • self-stabilizing

It has feedback systems (accelerometer, gyroscope, ultrasound, video) allowing it to be self-stabilizing.  Turn it on, and it rises up several feet, and (eerily) just sits there, like a bumblebee.

  • iPhone controller

It’s WIFI-enabled, enabling it to be controlled from an iPhone app.

  • web cam

WIFI capability allows it to stream video back to the phone.

The combination works together nicely. 

Good fun.

 

(Thanks for reading – Steve Klinkner)

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2 Responses to Cool Geek Toy: AR Drone

  1. Praveen says:

    Cool… I am considering to buy one ;)

  2. Noémie says:

    Just for pleasure : a very funny video buzz http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IozJnGa8AiU with AR Drone controled with your body gestures and moves. Vigo Universal has developped a free software to control the AR Drone with 3D camera available on http://www.therobotisyou.com/
    Enjoy ! : )

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