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Automated Office Delivery with Helium Blimps

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the wave-of-the-future dept.

Blimp Dude writes "Anyone who likes blimps might want to check out this automated blimp delivery service built by some guy at HP Labs. I personally think this is the future... Now I want WebBlimp to deliver groceries directly to my 29th floor apartment window."

3 of 165 comments (clear)

  1. im not very impressed by Zebbers · · Score: 3, Insightful

    while i give kudos for having fun building something neat, this hardly seems that slashdot worthy. it can barely carry a postit note and the guy himself basically says its not usable.

    again, i appreciate the try but the article itself wasnt any fun or insightful to read and the accomplishment wasnt too impressive. the most interesting part was using the red and blue to judge orientation and the size to judge distance. i thought that was neat, but not very practical of course.

    i expected a somewhat usable system, maybe tweaks needed to the guidance systems. but it cant even carry a piece of paper...........

  2. What would be cooler: by FunkSoulBrother · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Massive tube systems, like the ones they use in the drive-thrus at banks, to send materials shooting through the building.

    I've seen this implemented in some hospitals to move papers and stuff around, it would be cool to see on a larger office building size scale.

  3. The real achievement by ishmaelflood · · Score: 2, Insightful

    OK, so delivering a PostIt note is no biggy.

    He's really solving a much more important problem - visual tracking and control of dumb vehicles. I like the red and blue idea, it is economical and fits the available technology. The advantage is that the vehicle does not know, or even need to know, where it is. What other contactless 3D positioning system could be built for a hundred bucks? This is great for expendable vehicles, or those with very limited payloads.

    Neat, fun, slightly daft, project, in my opinion.