Macworld Forums: Hands on with the AR.Drone iPhone-controlled quadrocopter - Macworld Forums

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Howdy, neighbor....

Waiting for Sept 3rd.

Already pre-ordered Call of Duty Black Ops Prestige Edition (with the "spy bot" RC car). Now I need this and a new tinfoil hat and I'm good to go!

AR (augmented reality) is hot, Hot, HOT!

There are tons of advertising/marketing projects out there to experience for free (Doritos, Dos Equis) And there are inexpensive AR experiences from Hallmark Cards and Atomic Greetings. The latter lets you record an AR video message to someone.

There is talk that AR will be hitting SXSW big next time around... exciting stuff!

I have tried a few helicopters and none are really that great. Difficult to control. They will bump into things and they will break. 8it's just a matter of time and to pay that kind of money to crash something...I don't think so!!

interesting.

usually a quadricopter or tricopter should be able to maintain its position in the air while using GPS, especially for sidewinds etc like the case the editor mentioned. I guess at this price point the AR drone doesn't have GPS or does it? and what about a gyro? it would tell the device of a sudden change in position which is not intended by the user.

This post has been edited by Vertrider: 30 August 2010 - 06:53 AM

Drack69, on 24 August 2010 - 06:26 AM, said:

I flew the AR.Drone in a hotel at MacWorld in San Francisco. I had never seen it before and they handed me the iPhone in the lobby on one of the upper floors. I found it very easy to control. I too have tried to fly other RC helicopters and found them impossible to control. The AR.Drone was very different. Very stable. In fact I walked over to it while it was hovering and pushed down on one of the styrofoam guards. The drone wobbled briefly and immediately re-stabilized.

The only thing I found difficult was orienting myself with only the onboard cameras. It is much easier to just look at it flying in the room. However, as mentioned in the review, if you turn it around and fly it back at you, the controls are reversed and its very difficult to stop yourself from turning the wrong way.

I was also worried about its durability. But it was a blast to fly and I wanted one right away. Not sure if I'll pony up the $300 though.

I have no affiliation with Parrot.

Vertrider, on 30 August 2010 - 06:50 AM, said:

It doesn't have GPS.

I have flown RC aircraft for many years, and the controls "reversing" is only a matter of perspective. Just like if you and I faced each other then raised our right hands; each of us would raise what would look like opposing hands, but they would each be our right hand.