Hasta La Gadget!

The Oculus Rift will most likely lead to a new genre of first-person games, but it could also make drones a lot more fun to use. For his master’s thesis, Jonathan of Intuitive Aerial is working on Oculus FPV, a drone camera system that streams 3D video that can be viewed with the Rift.

The system uses a Black Armored Drone carrying a laptop and two cameras. The laptop compresses the feed from the two cameras and sends them to a second computer on the ground via Wi-Fi. It’s a crude setup, but it works. According to Intuitive Aerial the current rig has a range of about 160′ to 320′ when using Wi-Fi cards. The video latency is 120ms, good enough for the viewer to pilot the drone at the same time.

That shot of the pilot wearing the Rift reminds me of Ghost in the Shell. Intuitive Aerial said it will improve Oculus FPV if it receives enough interest from potential clients. They should incorporate the MYO armband to Oculus FPV make it more fun to use.

[via Intuitive Aerial via Walyou]

UAVs designed for military use are obviously expensive, but you still wouldn’t want to break even the more affordable recreational variants like the AR.Drone. That’s why Dr. Paul Pounds and his team of roboticists at The University of Queensland are looking into creating disposable drones. One of their prototypes certainly looks the part: it’s shaped like a paper airplane.

The roboticists’ main reason for researching disposable drones is to help monitor forest fires, that’s why they designed the Polyplane to be cheap, easy to build and operate and also biodegradable. I guess the idea is for firefighters and rescuers to be fine with losing a plane or five so they can focus on looking for people in need.

The Polyplane is made from a cellulose sheet that’s been printed with electronic circuits. It’s then cured and sintered, turning it into a flexible circuit board. Like paper planes, the Polyplane can’t propel itself, but it does have elevons that it can use to steer. Head to Gizmag to see the researcher’s other prototype, a drone shaped like a maple seed.

[via Gizmag & Emergent Futures]

The Sky Sentinel UAV could be the next eye in the sky.

Like It , +1 , Tweet It , Pin It Original content from Ubergizmo.

So, here’s a situation: you’d love to your iPhone or iPad to control your UAV collection, and you’re pretty obsessed with collecting as many of these UAVs as possible. Aside from undoubtedly landing yourself on an FBI watch list, you’ll probably also be interested in helping the folks at Fighting Walrus Radio turn their dreams into reality. In a nutshell, the project seeks to fund an iOS hardware peripheral that operates with both Lightning and Dock Connector-equipped products — turning ’em into “a mobile ground station for your personal unmanned aerial vehicle.” It’s built to report your UAV’s critical flight systems and log flight data within a one mile range, and it’s compatible with all MAVLink drones as well as the Parrot AR.Drone. Also, it’s called the Fighting Walrus Radio. For those that need a bit more convincing, there’s a demo video just after the break, while to-be customers can hit up the read link.

Filed under: Robots

Comments

Source: Indiegogo

The classic Twilight Zone episode takes a 21st century turn—yesterday a man aboard an Alitalia flight preparing to land at JFK spied something disturbing outside his window: what appeared to be an unmanned vehicle in the sky. More »