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Zero Zero's Camera Drone Could Be A Robot Command Center In The Future (ieee.org)
Tekla Perry writes: Zero Zero Robotics comes out of stealth today with the Hover Camera drone that uses face and body recognition to follow and photograph selected subjects. Company cofounder Meng Qiu Wang explains why he did the engineering in China (he built a team of 80 that worked two years on the project), and how this flying camera will evolve to be a navigation and control system for future home robots. According Zero Zero cofounder and CEO Meng Qiu Wang, "It has two cameras. The front viewing camera is a 13-megapixel camera that records video, but also has Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM), an algorithm that allows it to determine where it is. It also has a down-facing video camera, running an algorithm called optical flow, that looks at ground at 60 frames per second, so the Hover knows when it moves and can correct itself. These visual sensors are giving inputs and actual position and speed, meanwhile, the accelerometer and gyroscope gives relative position. All these signals are fed into the flight control algorithm, so when I throw it up in the air, it can just hover there." With a price of less than $600, it should compete well against the expensive DJI Phantom 4, which is already available on the market for $1400 and features autonomous flying and tracking features.
Very nice! These guys are really thinking about what they're doing.
This is just what we need, making it easier for drones to invade people's privacy. If you're flying high enough, small movements in the position of the drone won't have any effect on the quality of the picture or video. After all, this technology wasn't needed to get good photos and videos from helicopters. This is really for things like using drones to look in people's windows and spy on them. We don't need that.
That has to be the dumbest thing I have ever heard. He can throw it in the air and it can just hover there? It took you two years to build that with 80 people? Christ.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/robotics/drones/camera-drone-could-be-a-robot-command-center Corrected link.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/view-...
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The idea of a hover platform to provide guidance to ground-based robots would seem to make sense. Would be pretty noisy, tho.
"We receive as friendly that which agrees with, we resist with dislike that which opposes us" - Faraday
Flying cameras are drones designed for use by consumers that don’t want to learn how to fly a drone; they just want to take pictures....In a few weeks, I’ll be attending my son’s high school graduation in Silicon Valley, with, I’m sure, my view obscured by parents using pads and phones and selfie-sticks to record the moment. By next spring, I’m betting at least a few of the selfie-sticks and tripods are going to be replaced by camera drones.
Flying so near large groups of people is against the law.
Besides, a quadcopter will most probably crash, as the WiFi signal from the numerous smartphones of a large group will interfere with the radio command signal.
One must learn to fly anyway, otherwise it is just a recipe for a disaster.
Combine this with Facebook's face recognition, and your home can watch everyone as effectively as the sensors in "Minority Report". Of course then the hacking community/government will tap into them the way many do with the cameras in smartphones or IoT appliances and then...well. The Chinese government would probably LOVE one of these in every home. (Many of their products, one infamous router in particular, are know for existing back doors...not closed even after discovery).
"Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Einstein
foe example in slomo shots you can see all four propellers spinning anti clockwise :))
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