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Parrot iPod-Controlled Quadricopter Launches This Week

Posted by timothy on from the amazing-fun dept.

MojoKid writes "Remote-controlled helicopters are not new, but Parrot's AR.Drone Quadricopter is set to make a splash when it goes on sale on Sept. 9th. It will use an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad as a controller, and give a live video feed from two different cameras to the pilot. Each model comes with two hulls, one of them for indoor use, with protective loops around the rotors. The device creates its own Wi-Fi network, which the iOS device connects to in order to control the Quadricopter."

3 of 67 comments (clear)

  1. Re:oh where have I seen this before by BasilBrush · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That doesn't have computer assisted flight, nor video fed back to the controller.

  2. latency! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Wifi will never give performance you can expect from any RC flying object. You've just wasted U$300...

  3. Re:Unsuitable for outdoor use in wind by TheLink · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Yep many (not all) electric helicopters don't have that much power and can't fly that fast - if they did they wouldn't be safe for beginners (and flying those in small indoors spaces would take more skill).

    So just a brisk outdoor breeze would be faster than their top speed, hence they'll be blown away...

    I have an esky lama v3, and it's fun, but more hassle to fly. So I actually fly a smaller helis indoors. Cheap and fun. My latest is a "jin xing da" model 331 heli. It even has an accelerometer ("gyro"), so it controls pretty well, but doesn't fly as fast as one of my earlier small helis (which was lighter).

    This Quadricopter thingy though has a lot more intelligence - seems you can push it around and it'll try to go back...

    --