Click here for more info!French wireless device maker Parrot on Monday unveiled its smartphone-controlled Bebop Drone, equipped with a 14-megapixel full HD fish-eye camera and Oculus Rift compatibility. Parrot's follow-up to last year's AR.Drone 2.0, the Bebop is controlled by any iOS- or Android-based smartphone or tablet, allowing pilots an aerial view while staying grounded. Its 180-degree field of vision shoots smooth video and crisp photos, even as the drone battles windy conditions; the camera can also pan and tilt as you command it. Using the fish-eye technology, the drone essentially captures more content than is necessary, then automatically edits it using internal software. Videos in MP4 format and photos in JPEG or DNG formats are saved to the drone's 8GB flash memory, and can be transferred onto a mobile device or PC via a wireless connection or the embedded micro-USB connector. The companion FreeFlight 3.0 mobile app is available to download in the Apple iTunes Store or Google Play store.

Use the application to access ground functionalities like piloting, photos/videos, flight plan, and the cloud-based "Pilot Academy" service. Tap the "take off" button to send your drone flying, then use the left virtual joystick to control altitude, rotation, tilting, and direction, as well as the right controller to angle the camera's tilt while in the air. "With Bebop Drone, Parrot demonstrates its technological expertise and confirms its commitment to the civil drone market," the company said in a news release, additionally boasting of a "super high-tech leisure quadricopter with features of a professional one."ar drone 2 ifixit The new drone employs Parrot's Wi-Fi connectivity solution, along with four antennas which operate on both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency bands. parrot drone 2 recensioneAnd if you attach the Skycontroller accessory, you'll get an amplified Wi-Fi signal, extending the drone's wireless range up to about 1.25 miles.google buys drone maker courted by facebook

For what Parrot calls "extreme sensations," you can attach FPV (first person view) glasses—like the Oculus Rift headset—to the Skycontroller, and your head movements will control the drone's camera. The Bebop Drone is expected to launch in the fourth quarter of the year, though Parrot has not revealed an exact release date or retail pricing. The French manufacturer earlier this year revealed two house-broken gadgets at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas: the MiniDrone and Jumping Sumo. The toys are small enough to enjoy indoors, but powerful enough to fly outside as well. For more, see PCMag's review of the Parrot AR.A 3D printed aerial imaging drone, new drone sightings data analysis, a hand gesture-based controller for the Parrot AR, bad practice lawsuits, control of airspace over private property, and an autonomous aerial taxi. Singapore-based startup has created the Captor UAS, said to be a high-quality aerial imaging drone with a 3D printed body.

The Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) has analyzed recent FAA drone sighting data and finds that UAS sightings peaked in August 2015, but have been declining month-by-month since then. The Power Glove was released in 1989 as a controller accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Only two games were available, and they did not sell well. Nolan Moore has now taken a Power Glove and turned it into a hand gesture-based controller for the Parrot AR Drone. You can follow Moore’s the development on his . Two lawsuits are underway for the Connecticut student who mounted a gun then a flamethrower on a quadcopter. One suit seeks to reinstate him at Central Connecticut State University, which expelled him. The other lawsuit concerns failure to comply with FAA administrative subpoenas for certain records. This article presents the opposing views of two legal experts concerning the legal right to fly a UAV over private property. One contends that privacy and safety considerations dictate that flights unauthorized by the property owner should not be allowed.

The other expert says drones are the next frontier in aviation and decisions about where drones they can fly should be made collectively. Ehang has received approval from the Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems and the Governor’s Office of Economic Development to test the autonomous aerial taxi. A prototype of the Ehang 184 was shown at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year. EHANG184, world’s first Autonomous Aerial Vehicle Students from the Auckland University of Technology were looking at dolphins when they spotted the rare Bryde whale off the coast of New Zealand. The critically endangered whale was feeding her calf using a rarely seen process called “lunge feeding.” The students captured video using a  waterproof drone. “Sky Magic” was produced by Japanese advertising company MicroAd using twenty drones with LED lights. Traditional Japanese guitars called shamisens provide the background music.Las Vegas: Some 20,000 products are being shown at CES this year.

I spent a fairly chaotic day getting acquainted with a tiny fraction of them and here are my top five favourites so far… 1. The Parrot AR Drone This thing is amazing – its a carbon and plastic “quadricopter” that you can steer and fly using controls on an iPhone. The thing is amazingly easy to learn how to control – you tilt the iPhone to steer, raise it or lower it to change elevation. If you take your hands off the controls, the AR Drone stabilises and goes into autopilot mode – just watching it do that is fascinating. The four rotors whir like horizontal fans. If someone calls you onyour iPhone while you are flying, it will gently land the drone so you can take the call! The AR Drone creates its own mesh network between the iPhone and the flying device and the wireless is tremendously responsive. I flew the drone in a dog flight against another player. When you line up at the right altitude and lock your sensors onto your competitor, lasers are triggered and you get a kill.

I nearly took the head off a couple of show attendees getting used to the AR Drone, but in no time I was a competent dog fighter! I’m seriously considering bringing one of these home with me – it is endless fun. 2. Samsung 75 inch 3D LED LCD flat screen TV This is the most beautiful TV I’ve ever seen. It’s the largest high-definition LED TV in the world, is incredibly thin and if you really want to, you can run 3D content on it. That last feature is the least appealing for me. I just stood there staring at the screen as a series of cityscapes flashed by. The image-quality is breath-taking.It is also internet-enabled. The brushed-steel finish gives the TV an elegenat look. It doesn’t really get better than this at the moment – no price details at this stage, but it won’t be cheap! I was sceptical about the 7 inch screen on the Tab, Samsung’s Google Android-powered iPad rival. But having had a decent play with one, its incredibly versatile and the screen size isn’t too much of a compromise when it comes to web surfing and viewing applications.

More details and all the specifications here. Price: US$299 on a 2 year Sprint mobile contract.$549 with no contract). 4. Maxell 64 GB SD card The only really innovative thing about this little sliver of silicon is the memory capacity. Think about it – 64GB of storage on a postage stamp sized memory card. 5. Panasonic 3D camcorder adapter Now that we have 3D TVs and laptops that can display 3D video, there’s an impetus to enable consumers to generate their own 3D content. Imagine it – your home movie of that marlin coming aboard is going to really leap out at you when the fish is flapping around in 3D. To do this Panasonic has come up with a lens attachment for its camcorders. Here’s a review of the camera: 3D conversion lens that records right-eye and left-eye images simultaneously through its two lenses. The right/left images (each with 960 x 1080 pixels) that enter through the lenses are recorded using the side-by-side method. By attaching the lens, and connecting it to a TV that is capable of side-by-side method 3D playback, vividly colorful 3D images can be viewed at home.