Pilot a Plane with a PDA?

An anonymous reader writes "This whitepaper describes how engineers at IBM's Pervasive Computing Advanced Technology Laboratory created a Linux-based, intelligent, remote control system for a model airplane as a way to showcase gateway server technology. The onboard computer controls various navigational equipment and interfaces to a wireless access point and PDA. The user can control the plane through handheld wireless technology. A 3-dimensional virtual flight environment tracks the plane's flight and provides a gps-based autopilot function. The environment is based on LandSAT maps and gives the user a virtual view of the flight from the cockpit of the plane, which can be augmented by real-time updates from an onboard camera. The article briefly introduces "gateway server" concepts, describes the embedded hardware and software architecture, explains how the IBM developers implemented the control systems, and includes lots of cool photos."

Comments

Range?

[phalse phace]

Anyone know what the distance of transmission for the pda's signals to the plane is?

Where's all the technology?

[civilengineer]

From your wireless PDA, you could turn on lights, set your VCR, monitor your alarm system, or even fly a plane.

Its 2003 and I can't even control my alarm clock with my computer. It looks like I won't have computer controlled devices at home anytime before 2010. Anyway, this PDA experiment is keeping my hopes alive.