MIT's Flyfire To Paint Images In the Sky Using Micro-Helicopters

@engadget mentions that a new project dubbed "Flyfire" at MIT is looking to launch a fleet of LED-equipped micro-helicopters and coordinate them in synchrony to create massive floating images. "By using LED-equipped drones the project pledges to build free-floating 3D displays, endowing them with enough smarts and positional awareness to organize themselves into an airborne canvas. It sounds deliciously exciting and challenging."

Comments

Great for sports!

[musicalmicah]

Looks like it would be amazing for sports stadiums. It could even deliver crowd-hyping mascots to various sections of the stadium. I wonder how the power source and recharging issue would be handled, though.

Re:Ah, the ethusiasm of youth

[Anonymous Coward]

Aside from stabilization, I think the bigger problem they will have is the duration of flight. By the time they get the helicopter matrix up and stabilized they will all need to land and recharge. And if there is no self docking mechanism to recharge, you will need an army of people to plug the things in when they come raining down.

Wind anyone?

[SlashDev]

I wonder how long before a gust of wind will disrupt the image...