Aerial Photography with iPhone-Controlled Quadricopter
This is one of the coolest gadgets we’ve seen in quite some time. The Parrot AR.Drone is a quadricopter that you control visually through wifi using your iPhone or iPod touch. The quadricopter has a built in camera that displays the real time view of the drone on your screen while you control it. We’re not sure if still photography or video capabilities are built in, but this could open the door to making simple aerial photography accessible to the general public.
What’s even cooler is the fact that the AR.Drone comes with augmented reality games for both single and multiplayer. This means the real world is turned into the battleground, and you can either have aerial fights with virtual enemies or your friend’s quadricopter! Parrot is currently showing off the carbon-fiber toy at CES 2010 in Las Vegas, and there isn’t any word on the pricing or availability yet. If the price is anything reasonable, you can be sure these things are going to be flying off shelves!
To whet your appetite even more, here’s a super-awesome video demonstrating how the AR.Drone works:
