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Airborne Video With an R/C helicopter

Posted by Hemos on from the you-can-see-the-world dept.

PerryResearch writes "MacGyver would be jealous - here are the plans for a complete 2.4 ghz wireless video transmission system, mounted on a Mikado Logo 20 R/C helicopter, with realtime video overlay showing wireless signal strength, GPS coordinates, and support for videoglasses. Make sure you check out some of their in-flight videos."

21 of 162 comments (clear)

  1. Wow. Just what I've always wanted. by qewl · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now I can spy on the chick next door.. I just have to hope she doesn't see a mini helicopter with a camera hanging off of it flying outside her bedroom window!

    --

    (\_/)
    (O.o) This is Bunny. (> <)
  2. hah! by Jedi+Alec · · Score: 5, Funny

    MacGyver would be jealous

    Only if they built it from some branches, a trashcan that was lying around somewhere and an old carburator from a dead moped.
    --

    People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
    1. Re:hah! by www.microsoft.com · · Score: 5, Funny

      [From Primal Void Engineer, via Sebastian's Humor Group]

      MacGyver Cookie Recipe

      Well, folks, here it is. I didn't have time to cook this stuff myself for you the way Paul Newman does, so I just wrote up this cookbook to give you all the recipes, tried and true just like I make'em in my own kitchen at home.

      CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES:

      Frequent flier coupons
      One medium paperclip (not plastic coated)
      One movie ticket stub
      Now remember that chocolate-chip cookies are supposed to be a nice relaxing kind of food, so the first thing you'll want to do to make them is to go somewhere where you can kick back and relax. Ecuador is good, so use your frequent-flier coupons to pick up a round-trip ticket there. The stewardess will hand you a couple of bags of peanuts, but don't eat them, since we're going to need those for the cookies.

      You'll find yourself sitting next to an attractive woman who teaches archaeology at Cornell; she'll explain that she's going to Ecuador to try to find her father--a biochemist by trade, but he dabbles in archaeology as a hobby--who went down there to find the lost pyramid of Sesquichachloride, well known in archaeological circles as the fabled storehouse of the god Valhequesal who, according to myth, rode down from the skies on a pillar of fire bringing with him a wealth of powerful but somewhat failure-prone magical devices that, according to the priests of the day, were pretty darn all-around nifty.

      Now her father, after examining several stone tablets depicting the god Valhequesal, discovered that he is always shown wearing a curious bracelet on his left wrist that looks surprisingly like a digital watch, leading him to the conclusion that Valhequesal did actually exist, but he was really an advanced space traveller with comparatively poor taste in accessories, and that the lost pyramid of Sesquichachloride must contain his spacecraft and untold other devices from his world. About this time, the stewardess will bring by the main meal and you'll want to be sure to save the little packets of salt and butter that come with your meal--the woman next to you will be too worried about her father to eat and so you'll want to take her packet of butter and go ahead and keep her crackers too.

      When you get off the plane in Ecuador, just go out to the front of the airport and try to locate a cab. There won't be any, for some reason, so you'll go inside to inquire about where transportation might be found and some guy will stumble against you and when you look at him, you'll notice that he's been stabbed in the left side and is bleeding pretty profusely. With a weakly shaking hand, he'll thrust the key to a safety deposit box into your hand, gasp something about "be careful of the poison ivy" and expire messily on the floor of the terminal. You'll decide that maybe waiting for a cab is the better part of valor and head back outside--on the way, though, be sure to stop at the concession stand and ask for a half-pound of chocolate chips. The clerk will measure the appropriate amount and put it in a bag for you. Be sure your movie ticket stub is visible in the handful of change you pull from your pocket to pay her. She'll reach down under the counter and then surreptitiously drop a roll of microfilm into your bag along with the chocolate chips, then hand you the bag, saying, "On the house."

      At this point, speed is of the essence--get back outside the concourse before a swarthy man with a mustache strides up to the snack shop holding a movie ticket stub. Moments later he and the clerk will run out the door looking for you, just as the woman who sat next to you on the plane drives up in her rental car and offers you a lift. Cheerfully accept, and hop in before the man with the mustache disconnects the safety on his gun. If all goes well, you'll both be out of the parking lot and on your way before he has time to squeeze off more than one shot--and he'll miss on the first one anyway and the woman driving the car will think it was just another vehicle b

  3. Should be great for filming sporting events by Wiktor+Kochanowski · · Score: 5, Interesting

    For example, cross country bicycle racing. As a sport - it's fantastic to do it, but extremely boring to watch, because the camera cannot follow riders as it does in road racing. A heli-mounted camera is what this sport is waiting for.

    1. Re:Should be great for filming sporting events by Tall+Rob+Mc · · Score: 4, Interesting

      If you watched the Tour De France, they already use helicopters and video cameras to cover the race. Race observers know not to watch the road, but rather the skies, to anticipate the arrival of the pack. I'm not sure how many RC helicopters would have the 200km range necessary to film an entire stage like a full-size helicopter with a cameraman.

    2. Re:Should be great for filming sporting events by Wiktor+Kochanowski · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yeah, the problem with standard-sized, manned helicopters in XC racing is that

      * they are too big to fit between terrain features, to come close to the riders, and to film something else than their backs from above

      * they are too expensive - even in road racing only the biggest races can afford them.

      But given a cheap RC that can fit between trees and come really close to the racers to make a side shot, follow the racers on hard technical uphills and downhills, and XC racing could look, in TV, way more interesting than it is now.

    3. Re:Should be great for filming sporting events by Samedi1971 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The scale on this is way too small for anything beyond line of sight. For one thing, you have to have control over the heli (hobbyist RC transmitters like the ones used have limited range), and more importantly, 2.4 ghz video cameras like the ones used in the article have much shorter range, even with a clear line of sight. The cameras are also nowhere near broadcast quality.

    4. Re:Should be great for filming sporting events by henley · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Err... See, the thing about model helicopters is that they're a complete pig to fly. I think the mean-time-before-superglue for learner pilots is about 30 seconds of flight time. It's inherent in the technology: they're very mechanically complex and dynamically unstable.

      So having said all that, do you think it would be a good idea to have a whirling mass of blades teetering close to anything you think as valuable? Such as cyclist's heads, for example?

      --

      --
      I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy
  4. Application in Sporting Events or Biohazzard? by FauxReal · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Lets just hope it doesn't block that winning touchdown pass at the superbowl. Seriously though.. how about outdoor sporting events in rugged terrain. Or maybe to survey the damage at a post nuclear accident or some kind of toxic gas filled area. Then again you could allways fit it with a laser and paint targets for cruise missiles.

    --
    Deltron 3030 - Virus (music video)
    1. Re:Application in Sporting Events or Biohazzard? by palad1 · · Score: 3, Funny
      Or maybe to survey the damage at a post nuclear accident or some kind of toxic gas filled area. Then again you could allways fit it with a laser and paint targets for cruise missiles.

      Are you suggesting we should come up with a device that could allow us to fire a cruise missile on a target that survived a friggin' nuclear accident??? Talk about overkill!

      ...Unless your target is Prof. Xavier's School For The Gifted.

  5. Could this be a possbile 3G killer app? by neglige · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Just imagine: build a helicopter with a camera and equip it with a 3G mobile phone.

    Then you can dial in to the helicopter and control it with another phone in your hand while seeing the video streamed live to your device. This could, of course, already work with GPRS or HSCSD, but with 3G its much more l33t.

    And you do not want to receive a call from your mom, which would interrupt your current transmission :/

    --
    My cats ate my karma. They also wrote this comment.
  6. Nice going, guys. by mu_wtfo · · Score: 5, Funny

    We've Slashdotted Estonia!!

    --
    If all the world's a stage, anyone who says they want better lighting spends far too much time in a dark theatre.
  7. Re:Hum... by perly-king-69 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Trrsts don't tend to need that sort of accuracy.

    A van packed with explosives parked against a building usually does the trick.

    --

    --
    This sig is inoffensive.

  8. Old news or not, it'll get slashdotted. by tugrul · · Score: 5, Informative

    Mirror in progress of those videos...

    This might give me the final push in ordering a R/C heli. Any advice on starter models and how steep the learning curve is?

    *goes back to playing the R/C heli mission in GTA Vice City*

    1. Re:Old news or not, it'll get slashdotted. by JiffyJeff · · Score: 5, Informative

      Any advice on starter models and how steep the learning curve is?

      Two Part Question: 1) Starter Models don't exist -- You can buy a small model built for a .30 engine for the least amount of money, but it in no way equates to an "easier to fly" machine. In fact, the larger engined machines are easier to fly, but when you crash them it costs more to repair.

      2) The Learning Curve is very steep. If you buy an R/C Heli, count on spending another $200 or $300 simulator. The simulator will allow you to connect your radio transmitter to your computer with a cable that allows you to use your own radio to control the on-screen heli.

      More Info: For every minute I've ever flown on an RC Heli, I've spent at least 5 fixing/repairing it on the ground. And for every hour flown, I've spent probably 10 on the simulator... Before I got into the hobby, I was told that flying one of these beasts was like "balancing a steel ball bearing on a convex glass lense" which is pretty damn hard.

    2. Re:Old news or not, it'll get slashdotted. by hoofie · · Score: 3, Interesting

      No its not crap - have you ever flown one ? At least have the bottle to say it winout being an anonymous coward.
      The Piccolo is indoors only or else on a day with zero breeze.

      The main posters comments are spot on - I used to fly .30 rc helis for a while and they are very hard to fly - even with gyroscope stabilisation and computerised transmitters.

      The best advice is don't buy one unless you are serious about learning to fly one - its expensive and you will bend it on numerous occasions, although everything is repairable.

      Also, safety first - even a little .30 copter has a lot of inertia in its rotor blades at full power and could cause some serious damage to someone.

      Having said all this, when you eventually manage to get it into a stable hover for as long as you want, its a real feeling of accomplishment.

  9. Re:Hum... by joFFeman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    naturally someone had to bring 'this' up. the fact is there's no way to be totally safeguarded from an attack by someone who has issues with your country. the best thing for a government to do is try to refrain from making enemies, and the best idea for a private citizen is to get on with your life and go about your business without constant worry. widespread paranoia in the public doesn't do anyone any good, save for those manufacturing gas masks, bomb shelters, or war.

    --
    "Life is great; without it, you'd be dead." -Harmony Korine
  10. Another application by fven · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If the camera fitted was an infrared camera, this would be great to help find lost hikers/ skiiers.

    This could also be adapted for something like rogaining - every team carries some form of tag. Helicopter flies around competition area giving real-time tracking of competitors and also some cool video.

  11. Whatever happened to ... by Alaska+Jack · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Video eyeglasses?

    Seeing this guy wearing his clunky "Video I-glasses" made me wonder why these never caught on.* Three or four years ago I tried on a pair of television eyeglasses, and was sure that within a few years, the technology would improve to the point where these things would become practical, ubiquitous and cheap replacements for computer monitors. So why the total lack of demand? * And no, I don't mean as fashion accessories. Smartass.
  12. OR just get it all in one by ItsIllak · · Score: 3, Informative

    Buy one of these:

    http://www.rctoys.com/draganflyer3.php

  13. my own rig by AcesAreWld · · Score: 5, Informative

    Hey guys, I have been flying R/C for a long time. About 3 years ago I built a little, cheap, but highly functional mount for my .30 sized helicopter. Since then I started a company and purchased a 6.5 foot 23 lb helicopter that carries a Canon GL1 high quality video camera, 2.4 Ghz Video Downlink, Canon Powershop S400 Elph for stills, and more. My website is VERY OLD and outdated, but check out some of the stuff I have done here:

    http://www.rchelicam.com

    Most pics on the site are from the old demo .30 rig, the new rig is featured (for now) here:
    http://www.rchelicam.com/gasser/
    What do ya think?

    --Geoff
    "Aces Are Wild"
    http://www.rchelicam.com