Micro-Helicopter Hive Displays 3D Images

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rtfm

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Very clever as a tech demo, but the batteries won't last long in those tiny 'copters, so no good for advertising and I imagine any kind of wind would blow these out of alignment with each other.

Maybe larger versions could be used as landscape scanners to quickly search a large area for small objects (to search fields for a murder weapon or jewelery for example) while flying in formation?
 

Clintonio

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first person to say 'porn' needs to get a girlfriend. Wait, no, everyone.

Anyway, cool invention, I could imagine using them as surround lights. Like, when you go into a pitch black forest, you could command them to keep a certain radius of light around you or something. Smart lighting admittedly, that removes their pixel purpose, but whatever.
Keeping the pixel purpose, it could be interesting to add sensors to them, like radiation sensors, and make them create visible colour maps over a terrain. It'd give scientists a wet dream.
 

Bolbi

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Amazing! I could see these being used in business modeling, e.g., 3D CAD models of orthopedic implants. Why limit models to 2D on a screen?
 
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Good, now take this same consept, and apply it to nanobots.

Michael Crichton’s prey anyone?
 

Sabre5025

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I have several of these helicopters, specifically the falcon-X model.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0nPrRmgPY4&feature=related
(not my video, just something I grabbed off youtube)

They are so lightweight that they must be used indoors and the slightest draft blows them out of position. For example: they can not fly past a lamp without being drawn in and up by the hot air rising off the bulb or past an air conditioning vent without being blown out of the sky. Also, notice how in the video, there is never a moment when the helicopter is in the air that it is motionless. The small movements are beyond the control of the pilot to stop.

My point is that they are highly maneuverable but station keeping is basically impossible and we should keep that in mind when coming up with applications
 

drethon

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[citation][nom]rtfm[/nom]Very clever as a tech demo, but the batteries won't last long in those tiny 'copters, so no good for advertising and I imagine any kind of wind would blow these out of alignment with each other.Maybe larger versions could be used as landscape scanners to quickly search a large area for small objects (to search fields for a murder weapon or jewelery for example) while flying in formation?[/citation]

I've been thinking about this type of application and my Graduate Thesis will probably be looking into creating a simulation environment to test the control logic these type of drones and their communications without having to build real hardware initially.
 

rtfm

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[citation][nom]Drethon[/nom]I've been thinking about this type of application and my Graduate Thesis will probably be looking into creating a simulation environment to test the control logic these type of drones and their communications without having to build real hardware initially.[/citation]


Cool, if it's good, one of the big hardware makers may buy it (multi-threaded cpu showcase maybe?) :

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/In...ssor,9633.html?xtmc=intel_buys_student&xtcr=6
 

rtfm

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^^ Dammit toms fix your f-ing comments script. Drethon - was trying to link to the toms article titled students robot becomes intels processor demo
 

drethon

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[citation][nom]rtfm[/nom]Cool, if it's good, one of the big hardware makers may buy it (multi-threaded cpu showcase maybe?) :[/citation]

Looking at multithreaded/multi-computer application.
 

MxM

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[citation][nom]idisarmu[/nom]cool, but you would need a HUGE display (2,000,000 helicopters) for this to be useful. The pixel density is just play awful.[/citation]
You can not compare it with the pixel count of standard displays. In display pixels can not move to have a fractional position.
 

CerianK

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I was thinking a new type of fireworks display... but not sure how to get sound without having them self-destruct (or just use high-wattage ground speakers). Power supply would need to last 10-20 minutes and they would need controlled decent for recovery.
 

sublifer

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Reusable Fireworks without the mess and danger! No garbage floating down. No stash of gunpowder waiting to blow up when someone tosses a cigarette... Could get much more creative with the displays too.
 
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