Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve written a lot about our Hackathon hackers: their shirts, their hats, their ability to code all night sustained by only junk food, beer, and Red Bull. But this year we decided to do something a little different.

We followed one hacker, David Kay, through all 24 hours of the event. Through the ups, through the downs, and through the delirious moments.

He and his partner, Steven Jung, have been regulars at this event for quite some time — he’s attended five Disrupts, four Disrupt Hackathons, and been a Disrupt volunteer twice — but decided that software wasn’t going to cut it this year. Instead, they bought a couple of Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 models and decided to teach the smartphone-controlled quadrocopter a few tricks.

The product they finished with was called Quadro, and was meant to fly, steer, and land via voice controls. And if not voice, an Xbox controller. This meant marrying base-level coding with Python, a more high-level programming language. But to take it a step further, they attempted to use facial recognition with the Drone’s camera, hoping to recognize the judges’ faces during their presentation.

It was a tough challenge, as you’ll see in the video — the duo finished with five minutes left on the clock.

David has worked for Google in New York, but now operates as an independent consultant with a focus on Android and iOS.

Here’s what he had to say about the role of Disrupt in his life:

Disrupt NYC 2010 was my first event in Startupland. After dropping out of school, I had been a professional DJ for a time, but, seeking something greater, I took some computer science classes and fell into programming. TechCrunch Disrupt was the first concrete assurance that I had made the right choice. As a lowly volunteer, I sat in the main hall, overwhelmed by the roster of developers, wet-behind-the-ears startup founders, grizzled tech veterans, angels and VCs, and could see myself, one day, enjoying each of these roles. It was then that I knew that Startupland was my home.

If you’d like to keep up with their exploits, you can follow David here and Steven here.

We have seen the second generation Parrot AR.Drone in action at CES earlier this year, but since 8 months have passed, what’s new about it? Nothing, unless someone decides to come up with a modified version. Here we are with the iPad-controlled Parrot AR.Drone, where researchers at Zhejiang University have managed to discover a way to control the quadcopter using one’s brain waves. This is not done through some sort of mutation or gamma radiation induced accident, but rather, through much simpler means where an EEG has been wired to the person’s head which will read one’s signals.

These signals will then be processed on a computer, where it will send an equivalent command to the drone sans wires. The entire goal is to help disabled folks gain a larger measure of independence in their lives. Not only that, it will help one explore their surroundings in a far freer manner, although one would think that normal folks would be able to enjoy this particular technology, too.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Parrot launches AR.Rescue 2 game for the AR.Drone 2.0, Parrot AR.Drone made to work with video glasses and controller,

See those silver stripes around the circumference of this Parrot AR drone? They’re not there for decoration or style. They’re actually strips of aluminum tape that’s wired into a capacitor from a disposable camera’s flash. Which means that when—not if—this drone bumps into someone, they’re going to get a particularly unpleasant shock as you can see what happened to its creator’s arm. More »

Welcome to Engadget’s back to school guide! The end of summer vacation isn’t nearly as much fun as the weeks that come before, but a chance to update your tech tools likely helps to ease the pain. Today, we’re taking our audio with us — and you can head to the back to school hub to see the rest of the product guides as they’re added throughout the month. Be sure to keep checking back — at the end of the month we’ll be giving away a ton of the gear featured in our guides — and hit up the hub page right here!

With all of the studying and on-campus traveling you’re about to delve into, sometimes adding a bit of music to your step can spice up those mundane times in your daily routine. That’s why we’ve rounded up a selection of portable speakers and headphones that’ll not only help you rock out whenever the mood strikes, but also go a step further by letting you take phone calls without skipping a beat. It may not be audiophile-grade gear in the official sense, but it won’t matter when you’re enjoying good sound just about anywhere your smartphone-connected life takes you.

Continue reading Engadget’s back to school guide 2012: portable audio

Filed under: Wearables

Engadget’s back to school guide 2012: portable audio originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Aug 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You do know that Parrot makes more than just the AR.Drone, right? It was at CES earlier this year that we first caught a glimpse of — and subsequently began geeking out about — the Parrot Zik by Starck. For those unfamiliar, these headphones are jam-packed with enough technologies to make even the geekiest audio lovers smitten. Priced at about $400, they feature Near Field Communication (NFC), Bluetooth connectivity, on-board capacitive touch-control, active noise cancellation, head detection, a jawbone sensor for speech and Parrot’s audio-enhancing DSP app for iOS and Android — not to mention a striking design by the renowned Philippe Starck.

This isn’t the first time Parrot and Mr. Starck have worked together, but this does mark their debut in the portable audio market (as opposed to home-based speaker systems). In the case of this review, not one, but two Engadget editors spent some time testing the product. So, do they impress? More importantly, are they worth the $400 asking price? You know the drill: meet us after the break where we’ll lay it all out.

Continue reading Parrot Zik by Starck review: Is $400 worth it for the fanciest, techiest headphones around?

Filed under: Wearables

Parrot Zik by Starck review: Is $400 worth it for the fanciest, techiest headphones around? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Aug 2012 14:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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