Parrot’s Bebop Drone (Fig. 1) features a 14-Mpixel HD camera with a fish-eye lens, enabling it to take videos and pictures with a 180° view. What is very impressive about the system is that the video streamed via Wi-Fi is digitally stabilized by the Bebop, which is great for first person control of the drone as well as providing excellent recorded video. I recently spoke with Vanessa Loury, PR Director for Parrot, about the Bebop Drone. Wong: What are the main features of the Bebop Drone? Loury: The Parrot Bebop is a very light leisure drone with a full high-definition, 14-Mpixel, fish-eye lens camera that has the ability to take videos and pictures in a 180° view. Its three-axis framework and numerous sensors give the Parrot Bebop Drone impressive stability and easy-to-use piloting via Wi-Fi with a smartphone or tablet. The Parrot Bebop Drone also is compatible with a Wi-Fi extender, the Parrot Skycontroller, which can be used to pilot the Bebop and provides an extended flight range.

Wong: What are the major changes between the AR.Drone and the Bebop Drone? Loury: The Parrot Bebop and the AR.Drone 2.0 (see “Smartphone Controls Low-Cost Quadrotor”) are different products altogether. Both drones are compact and light (less than 500 g). The main difference between the drones is in the camera. Where the Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 is equipped with a camera with 1280 x 720 resolution, the Bebop is equipped with a 14-Mpixel “fisheye-lens” camera that records video in full HD (1080p x 1920p). differenze parrot ar drone 1 e 2Furthermore, the pilot of the Bebop Drone can control the angle of the camera with their thumb, through the piloting app Free Flight 3.0, to adjust the angle of the view on a 180° angle. parrot ar drone motherboardThen, it can film or take pictures vertically. ar drone parts perth

Wong: What is the return home feature? Loury: If needed, pressing the “Return Home” button makes the Parrot Bebop Drone automatically fly back to its take-off position, guided by GPS coordinates. Wong: What is FreeFlight 3? Loury: The Parrot Bebop Drone comes with a free piloting application, FreeFlight 3.0, for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone smartphones and tablets. It enables access to all of the functionalities of the Bebop, including take off, tilt of the camera, rotation, etc. x rebirth where to buy cargo dronesThe ergonomics of the application have been developed to offer ease-of-use and allows the pilot to focus on the pleasure of flying. parrot ar drone review 2011Wong: How does the Bebop Drone Skycontroller work with a tablet? black ops 2 prestige drone

Loury: The Bebop Drone Skycontroller (Fig. 2), an RC-like remote control equipped with a Wi-Fi amplifier powered by an amplified Wi-Fi radio and four antennas, provides an even more powerful Wi-Fi connection. The piloting smartphone or tablet is fixed on the control dock and streams what the Bebop Drone is seeing on its screen. Wong: What can you do with the FreeFlight 3 SDK? Loury: The Parrot Drone’s SDK contains source code that allows developers to connect with all compatible drones, including our Minidrones Jumping Sumo, Minidrones Rolling spider, Bebop Drone and Skycontroller. We provide the tools to compile sources as well as samples files showing how to use the SDK. Developers are able to create programmable flight plans that compatible with MAVLink, a popular open-source drone control protocol. Applications can retrieve recorded pictures and videos as well as live streaming video. The system can handle 3D mapping. It can be used to create remote control with new devices as well as new piloting apps.

Wong: What affect will the new FAA rules (see “FAA Defines Drone Rules”) have on Parrot and its customers? Loury: Parrot drones have the ability to customize the firmware in accordance with regulations, such as capping the flight ceiling of our products at 400 ft., and we currently do this for the standards set in the U.S. Parrot also provides safety-recommendation information in each product packaging, and advises Parrot drone owners to review and adhere to flight guidelines for their country. Wong: Where do you see quadcopter technology going in the next few years? Loury: Parrot continues to grow and innovate in the drone technology space and today, we have the most extensive range of super-light civil drones in the consumer market with our Minidrones, AR.Drone, and Bebop lines, and professional market with the eBee and eXom drones by senseFly. We strongly believe in the potential of drones. As one of the leaders in drone technology, we are already involved in many fields including surveying, agriculture, GIS, industrial inspection, and mining.

In agriculture, for example, drones help to identify the need for fertilizer in a field’s plot. This allows for a better understanding of what is happening in a field, which allows for more economic, efficient, and green agricultural development.Ehang's system takes the movement of the VR headset and uses it as input controls for the Ghost Drone 2.0's gimbalIn the year since the release of the Ghost Drone, camera-equipped quadcopters that can autonomously track a subject haven't exactly become par for the course, but that feature is no longer enough to set them apart from the crowd either. In its ongoing search for a point of difference, the Chinese maker of the Ghost Drone has returned with a new and improved version, which allows pilots to don a set of virtual reality goggles and control the direction of the drone's camera simply by moving their head. Mixing virtual reality with drones isn't an entirely new idea. Parrot combined the two in its Bepop drone that launched last year, which allows users to plug headsets such as the Oculus Rift into the controller to gain a unique vantage point.

The sensation offered through real-time, first-person flying is also the main factor driving the sport of drone racing, where pilots tune into the views of their custom-built quadcopters as they zip through warehouses and forests.But Ehang, maker of the Ghost Drone, is looking to take things one step further. The Ghost Drone 2.0 will ship with a purpose-built virtual reality headset that, in addition to immersing users in the experience, could potentially overcome one of the more troublesome tasks of drone photography – specifically, controlling the orientation of a camera during flight. The system takes the movement of the VR headset and uses it as input controls for the Ghost Drone 2.0's gimbal. This is meant to mimic the natural motion of the head, so looking up and down will move the camera in those directions. Ehang claims data is transmitted at 5.8 GHz with zero latency up to 3,000 ft (914 m) away. As for flying the drone itself, Ehang has also developed a new iOS and Android app that allows users to switch between the downwards-facing camera and another at the front, presumably to help avoid collisions, while also incorporating gesture controls.

This means that mobile devices can be tilted in-hand to move the drone in the corresponding direction. This setup is very much in keeping with Ehang's approach to the original Ghost Drone, which eschews the radio controlled transmitters that accompany many popular quadcopters in pursuit of a more user-friendly way to move through the sky. Smartphone control may be less intimidating, and it is a strategy that Parrot has used to great effect first with its hugely popular AR Drone and then the Bepop, but they do have their limitations. In our experience they can be clunky and don't offer the same precision as a set of joysticks, but Ehang seems sure it can continue to win over smartphone-owning would-be pilots with an easier transition into drone flight. The app also allows users to set waypoints and includes a follow-me feature, along with an auto-return home function for when battery is low or the signal is lost.Among the other improvements to the second Ghost Drone is an upgraded GPS system and a more powerful processor, which Ehang says makes for improved overall flight.