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Drone Swarm Creates Star Trek Logo In London Sky

garymortimer writes "As a harbinger for the Paramount film 'Star Trek — Into Darkness', starting in May in Europe's cinemas, last night a swarm of 30 mini-helicopters equipped with the LED lights drew the Star Trek logo into the skies over London. The choreography for the show was developed by Ars Electronica Futurelab from Linz (Austria). Quadrocopter maker Ascending Technologies GmbH from Munich (Germany) provided the aircrafts."

35 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. Considering it's a for a J.J. Abrams Movie ... by Psion · · Score: 5, Funny

    All I can say is, "Bad Robots!"

  2. English Motherfucker, Do You Speak It ? by 1u3hr · · Score: 5, Informative

    provided the aircrafts.

    Plural of "aircraft" is -- "aircraft".

    1. Re:English Motherfucker, Do You Speak It ? by 1u3hr · · Score: 4, Informative
      PS: TFA had it correct:

      Quadrocopter maker Ascending Technologies GmbH from Munich (Germany) provided the aircraft.

      Some moron thought he'd "correct" it.

    2. Re:English Motherfucker, Do You Speak It ? by 1u3hr · · Score: 4, Insightful

      PS2: And it's not the "Star Trek logo", which consists of the stylized words "STAR TREK", but the Starfleet arrowhead emblem.

    3. Re:English Motherfucker, Do You Speak It ? by SternisheFan · · Score: 5, Funny

      PS2: And it's not the "Star Trek logo", which consists of the stylized words "STAR TREK", but the Starfleet arrowhead emblem.

      (puts on Simpsons' Comic Book Guy voice):

      "Any *true* Star Trek fan knows that calling those 'logos' is perfectly acceptable, I refer you to Wiki-Answers... etcetera..."

      THEY ARE ALL called emblems, or logos, or icons, or badges, which all mean the same thing. - http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Does_the_Star_Trek_emblem_have_a_name

      "You must go now. For the good of the city!"

    4. Re:English Motherfucker, Do You Speak It ? by 1u3hr · · Score: 2
      Bollocks retcon. They used it in TOS, long before Cochrane was imagined. No mention of this idea at Memory Alpha.

      Starfleet insignia
      The Starfleet insignia is a number of distinctive, slightly asymmetrical, arrowhead-shaped pennants adopted by Starfleet as its identifying emblems, used on starship hulls, installations and some uniforms worn by Starfleet personnel.

    5. Re:English Motherfucker, Do You Speak It ? by tehcyder · · Score: 2

      You sure it's not "aircraftses"?

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  3. LED Lights? by fustakrakich · · Score: 5, Funny

    Don't try this in Boston

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    1. Re:LED Lights? by ragnarok · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It would be illegal in the US anyway thanks to the FAA.

      --
      Search first, ask questions later.
    2. Re:LED Lights? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      LED Lights

      It is important to distinguish Light Emitting Diode Lights from my new invention, the Dark Emitting Diode Lights!
      These new form of DED Lights beam a high intensity ray of stupid out at 35 degrees, blinding with dull sparkling amazement anyone near by.

    3. Re:LED Lights? by slick7 · · Score: 4, Funny

      It would be illegal in the US anyway thanks to the FAA.

      It wouldn't be illegal if it were for national security or for the children.

      --
      The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.
    4. Re:LED Lights? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      LED Lights

      It is important to distinguish Light Emitting Diode Lights from my new invention, the Dark Emitting Diode Lights! These new form of DED Lights beam a high intensity ray of stupid out at 35 degrees, blinding with dull sparkling amazement anyone near by.

      It's been done, we call it television. :-)

  4. Drone servers by game+kid · · Score: 4, Funny

    In related news, The Pirate Bay is now formally refusing to take further donations for its airborne drone server plan. A London spokesman for the website said, "We've got more than enough capacity and redundancy now!", as he laughed mischievously and looked up towards the quadrocopter-filled sky. Paramount did not take our calls for comment.

    --
    You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
  5. Fuckin JJ Abrams by Starfleet+Command · · Score: 5, Funny

    Figures...the emblem is backwards.

    1. Re:Fuckin JJ Abrams by anom · · Score: 4, Funny

      Not from the other side :)

    2. Re:Fuckin JJ Abrams by camperdave · · Score: 3, Informative

      It was a rotating display. It's backwards because the person behind the camera doesn't know which way the logo really goes, so just snapped a shot when it looked nice.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    3. Re:Fuckin JJ Abrams by martin-boundary · · Score: 3, Funny

      AND it's upside down to confuse the Aussies! What a jerk!

  6. Re:Why London? by WWJohnBrowningDo · · Score: 2

    They probably tried and the FAA probably told them to fuck off.

    It's impossible to get a commercial UAS license for urban areas currently. Not to mention the airframe needs to be certified too.

  7. Re:But do the drones support host files? by buybuydandavis · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Slashdot needs to do something about this. How many posts are that long and have 20 links in them? Shouldn't be that hard to filter such posts.

    I flagged the post. I encourage others to do the same.

  8. Very cool by buybuydandavis · · Score: 2

    But a little disturbing and creepy too. The swarm behavior they program into these things is amazing, and gives me Terminator flashbacks. It looks like intelligent behavior.

  9. Re:But do the drones support host files? by Cenan · · Score: 4, Informative

    Every time you post a comment to his fucking nonsense, you're giving him food. Check out the links directly below the top paragraph, the bolded one liners. Some of those are posts from a few days ago. Flag it, hide it and move on, he's obviously in pain.

    --
    ... whatever ...
  10. Just what we need by houghi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Just what we need. More advertisement. We do not have enough of it it, so please fill the sky with it.

    We all saw the formation flying quads before in lab environment and what do they decide to do with this knowledge? Advertisement!
    I am sure that when we will have effective robots, they will not be used to do anything you think they can do, but rather walk in the streets, tap your shoulder and when you look, they say "Hey mister, did you hear about this great new product. ..."
    It will then follow you around till you placed an order. At that moment the next one comes along.

    --
    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    1. Re:Just what we need by DerekLyons · · Score: 2

      Just what we need. More advertisement.

      Advertising in the sky is old, old news... planes have been skywriting and towing banners for decades.

    2. Re:Just what we need by Type44Q · · Score: 3, Informative

      I am sure that when we will have effective robots, they will not be used to do anything you think they can do, but rather walk in the streets, tap your shoulder and when you look, they say "Hey mister, did you hear about this great new product

      This is why the time to create ad-blocking solutions is now, not later. For hardware, the bigger the caliber, the better... for software, I recommend fully-jacketed over hollowpoints (maximum penetration). :)

  11. Re:Why London? by Alioth · · Score: 3, Informative

    The state in the UK is if the unmanned aerial system weighs less than 20kg (basically, like most RC models) the regulation is correspondingly light and commercial operation is allowed without the need for certified systems or to put a G-xxxx registration on the aircraft. However, a permit is still required to operate and the operator must have a qualification to fly the aircraft (effectively a "drone pilot license") if it is to be flown in a populated area.

    Over 20kg and the UAS needs airworthiness approval.

    http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP722.pdf

  12. Re:Did anyone actually witness these flying lights by realityimpaired · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'd imagine that people had no trouble seeing them. Have you ever tried to take a picture of the night sky with a digital camera? Most of them, especially the cheap P&S or cell phone cameras that people would actually be likely to have on them, have a hard time picking up the stars too, even though they're plainly visible to anybody who bothers to look.

  13. The Only Interest..... by Dereck1701 · · Score: 2

    The Only interest I have in seeing this movie is when it comes out on one of the Satellite TV channels so I can DVR it and skip through it to watch the space scenes. The acting, script & sets are literally painful to me. Its like watching a two year old play with matchbox cars, flying them through the air like their jet fighters. Sure it may have moments of interest, but they are few and far between. For goodness sakes half of the sets were commercial/utility sites with a few computer consoles added (brewery, electrical substation).

    1. Re:The Only Interest..... by cyborg_zx · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's almost like they can't be bothered to just build the ships and go on location in space.

  14. In the future, when a permanent smog by QilessQi · · Score: 4, Funny

    obscures the skies, these will be our constellations. ...interrupted every five minutes or so when the drones re-form themselves into an ad for hemorrhoid cream.

  15. Re:Did anyone actually witness these flying lights by gstoddart · · Score: 2

    Most of them, especially the cheap P&S or cell phone cameras that people would actually be likely to have on them, have a hard time picking up the stars too, even though they're plainly visible to anybody who bothers to look.

    Depends entirely on where you are.

    Most urban locations have so much light pollution that the amount of stars you can see if hugely reduced. On a clear summer night out my back yard, most of the stars are washed out in the background light, and only the really bright stuff is visible.

    I should think in a city like London, the amount of visible stars wouldn't be all that much.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  16. Re:But do the drones support host files? by LordLimecat · · Score: 2

    If you dont want to tolerate it, set your threshold to hide -1 comments. Thats the whole point of comment moderation thresholds.

  17. Re:But do the drones support host files? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The problem with that is that too many idiots get mod points and inappropriately mod down good posts before many people get to see them. Setting your threshold to hide -1 comments means you will miss many that should never have been modded down in the first place.

  18. Re:Just wondering... by tehcyder · · Score: 4, Interesting

    No one cares about Dr. Who

    No offence, but go fuck yourself with a cricket bat.

    --
    To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  19. Re:Flying Pixels are not a Swarm by tehcyder · · Score: 2

    I think they might have made a bit more of a fuss about this if they'd stumbled upon actual emergent artificial intelligence, don't you?

    --
    To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  20. Re:Just wondering... by buanzo · · Score: 2

    I'm argentine, and I care about the Doctor. a HUGE % of argentines f****ing hate the falkinas islands... but love lots of their art.

    --
    Buanzo Consulting - 15 Years of GNU/Linux experience, for you.