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Micro Air Vehicles
Offwhite98 writes "Over at The Gainesville Sun they are running an article about really small planes used to watch all kinds of stuff. I am sure the common applications for these devices are pretty clear, but if you could use these for a lot of fun. Use 10 of them as flying candid cameras at a wedding or a party and you I am sure you will get interesting results." A little bigger than the Spy Fly but probably much more robust.
And you thought the X10 cameras were *NOT* used for improper spying... sheesh
"Use 10 of them as flying candid cameras at a wedding or a party and you I am sure you will get interesting results"
Yeah, like the planes crashing into each other and then into the guests, cake, etc.
PLIF .
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How long until the porn industry does something with one of these?
"The first erotic feature to include low-level fly bys of all the action!"
de plane, de plane.... de really, really small plane!
"PC Load Letter? What the $@#% does that mean?!"
Results like:
Shitty aerial footage of your wedding or party ("Honey, get the dramamine - I want to watch our wedding video again!")
Guests getting whacked in the eye with a spinning propeller
Stopping your party every ten minutes so you don't miss anything while the batteries recharge
Yeah, these things will totally make my party rock!
Ok, people are talking about these not being suitable for much because they can't hover or, have too large turning circles. Also, i see people are complaining about the cost and the battery life. Heres my idea.
Humming-birds have wings and can hover. They also have the ability to fly for extended periods, and when they get tired they can perch on the nearest ledge. Obvously, technology is not at the stage where this could be easily implemented into a Humming-bird sized package, and cheaply. However, Humming-birds themselves are relatively plentiful. What if, you attached a minature camera and transmitter to.. a Humming-bird? "But you cant control it!!" i hear you say. What if, you attached electrodes in such away that you could control, or atleast influence the flight. The bird would still keep priority control for dodging obsticles and landing when tired, but you would be able to control the basic directional element, and the direction of the camera. If you employed a flock of Humming-birds you could maintain a good deal of coverage for any event. Also, Humming-birds come with AI and basic flight control systems built in reducing the need for on-board electronics witch in turn reduces weight. For example, the bird has a built in gyroscope and can automatically 'right itself and maintain level flight.
The battery life of the camera could also be extended by attaching the power and/or data cables to the bird and having them trail behind, this would also prevent the bird from going out-of-range.
The millitary applications for this are also good - since no-one would look twice at a Humming-bird on a battle feild, they could be fitted with explosive devices to create humming-suicide-bombers (although the payload would be small).
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then Imagine Saddam swatting a pesky misquito not realizing that it cost 10 million dollars to manufacture.
Table-ized A.I.
Either:
There is some sort of 'aero geek chic' I don't know about
We're witnessing the visual manifestation of genetic selection for an obsession with small flying objects
This is the early stages of an alien invasion.
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Look again: http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/07/27/flying microbots.ap/index.html
and: http://www.gainesvillesun.com/articles/2002-07-31
"...where due to a terrible miscalculation of scale the entire battle fleet was accidentally
swallowed by a small dog."
* * Always question "the National Interest" - 9 times out of 10 it is a cover for evil