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Parrot AR.Drone Wi-Fi Quadricopter for iPhone --- too cool

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Original poster
Sep 26, 2007
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Check out iLounge's preview of this:

Parrot's AR.Drone ($300), the "Wi-Fi Quadricopter" that's also being billed as "the Flying Video Game," has finally arrived in final packaging, complete with its final shipping price tag and first application, Free Flight. Debuted at CES earlier this year, AR.Drone is a hovercraft-like flying device that you control using an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad over Wi-Fi, complete with the ability to look through its two on-board cameras while it's flying, using game apps for a next-generation entertainment experience...

Read & see more: http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/re...i-fi-quadricopter-for-iphone-ipod-touch-ipad/

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I like the look of that 'Emergency' button in the last pic :p I wonder what it does!?

This seems like a really good idea and hopefully not the only one of its kind. I know a few people who love flying miniature planes and some have cameras on. If this type of thing was put into flying one of those model planes it would be awesome.
 
Aaaand the UK gets ripped off again, with a £ for $ conversion of the US price making the cost about £50-70 more than it should be (allowing for the VAT). Nice one, Parrot.
 
Not necessarily a toy - I can think of plenty of work-related uses for this (if the camera's good enough, of course) e.g. surveying the roof/walls of buildings for damage.

Anyway, by the same logic, surely you didn't need to fritter that money away on an expensive iPhone and data plan? A cheapo dumb phone would make calls just as well... ;)
 
Just bought it. This is what I call entertainment :) I expect even more fun when I'll have downloaded the SDK and played with it a bit :)

@kAoTiX: the "Emergency" button shuts down the motors. Use only in, well, emergency situations because the drone will fall directly to the ground.
 
alFR said:
Not necessarily a toy ....

Anyway, by the same logic, surely you didn't need to fritter that money away on an expensive iPhone and data plan? A cheapo dumb phone would make calls just as well... ;)
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I need it for very important tasks for my very important work.* ;)

*actually my iPhone has saved my bacon many times at work, especially when traveling.
 
fraca7 said:
Just bought it. This is what I call entertainment :) I expect even more fun when I'll have downloaded the SDK and played with it a bit :)

@kAoTiX: the "Emergency" button shuts down the motors. Use only in, well, emergency situations because the drone will fall directly to the ground.
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This reply is full of win. :D
I demand a video of you using it, and also video captured from it during use! :p

I honestly couldn't justify purchasing something like this without having children, I'm simply too old for 'toys' regardless if they're high priced and high tech. That doesn't stop me from buying my own high tech gadgetry though :D
 
kAoTiX said:
I honestly couldn't justify purchasing something like this without having children, I'm simply too old for 'toys' regardless if they're high priced and high tech. That doesn't stop me from buying my own high tech gadgetry though :D
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I HAVE kids and I'm not gonna let them touch MY toy! Go for it!
 
Now if only they could develop this for the military's raven UAV, that would be awesome. The only problem is signal. The places we would fly it would most likely be lacking any kind of data reception and wi-fi is hard to come by on overseas bases.
 
vastoholic said:
Now if only they could develop this for the military's raven UAV, that would be awesome. The only problem is signal. The places we would fly it would most likely be lacking any kind of data reception and wi-fi is hard to come by on overseas bases.
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As I understand it (and I could be wrong), but doesn't it create an ad hoc network with your phone, so it basically works wherever your phone wifi signal will reach...i.e. no wifi network required?

Otherwise, it lost a lot of coolness for me. Won't be much fun if I can't play with it in my backyard where my wifi network doesn't reach.
 
kAoTiX said:
This reply is full of win. :D
I'm simply too old for 'toys' regardless if they're high priced and high tech. That doesn't stop me from buying my own high tech gadgetry though :D
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The old saying goes:

The difference between men and boys is the price of our toys. :D
 
drewc1138 said:
As I understand it (and I could be wrong), but doesn't it create an ad hoc network with your phone, so it basically works wherever your phone wifi signal will reach...i.e. no wifi network required?

Otherwise, it lost a lot of coolness for me. Won't be much fun if I can't play with it in my backyard where my wifi network doesn't reach.
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Yeah that's exactly what it does. It doesn't work like a real predator drone via satellite, cellular or directional antenna.
 
nateo200 said:
Yeah that's exactly what it does. It doesn't work like a real predator drone via satellite, cellular or directional antenna.
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that's pretty sweet. I would think the military would be able to develop something like this for the smaller unarmed UAV's. During my training with the Raven, we had a hand held control (think oversized sega game gear) and little antenna's that we popped up. It gave us a limited range, but I would think since this creates it's own network, they could do the same for the Raven and the only range limiter would be the battery life (which hopefully will improve later as well). We were able to sync it up to a computer as well to watch a live feed and see it's location on a map. As long as the antenna's were taking care of GPS, I wouldn't have to worry about the A-GPS in phone.

.......maybe I should write a letter to the DoD, but I'm sure they are already making something that I'll never have the privilege of knowing about.
 
This looks terrific! A pricey toy for sure, but I really like the live video.

Those of you getting one, please keep the rest of us updated with reviews and experiences!
 
vastoholic said:
that's pretty sweet. I would think the military would be able to develop something like this for the smaller unarmed UAV's....
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Regrettably this works both ways - it just a matter of time until technology like this is used by extremists/rogue states to deliver harmful payloads....
 
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