Pilot View FPV 2400 places you within remote-controlled vehicles

It's a tough call -- are you willing to get your eyeballs within the driver's seat of your remote-controlled vehicle, even if it means looking freakishly like Geordi La Forge? If you've thrown aside your pride and confidently answered "yes," you should certainly have a gander at the Pilot View FPV 2400. Designed for use in radio-controlled aircraft and cars, the system places a wireless camera in the cockpit and then beams back live first-person footage to those horrifically unsightly goggles you see consuming the face of that poor gal above. In all seriousness, we'd bet the experience is fairly novel, if not a touch fantastic, but we could probably think of more enthralling ways to spend $549 if we were really pressed.

[Thanks, Claudio]

[rkelly @ May 10th 2008 5:28AM]

the girl is ugly =\

[Mark @ May 11th 2008 3:26PM]

werd, I was like....

is that a robot man?
.... wait, there's boobz....
wait...... is that really a woman?

what the hell?

[Fubar @ May 10th 2008 10:19AM]

It's like Ted Nugent got the Geordi visor....

[Cygnus @ May 10th 2008 10:55AM]

Call me crazy, but I actually thought "heck nice boobs"... She may not be an asian gadget model, but if you look at the average Mid west 300 pounder, I'd, tap her.

Oh well, too each his own... ;)

[Admiral Ackbar @ May 10th 2008 2:00PM]

It's a trap!!!

[gabe @ May 10th 2008 2:16PM]

small boobs - ugly face - yah

[Carl M @ May 10th 2008 4:29PM]

The picture above just shows her at her worst, with a "I must kill someone now" look.

She actually looks much better at the start of the video:

http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/1169/pilotviewgirleu2.jpg

[Ayman @ May 10th 2008 5:36AM]

They couldn't just place a screen on the remote nooooooo that would be to practical, instead wear it so you look like an idiot in front of your friends.

[fred @ May 10th 2008 7:50AM]

Really now?

I would think your freiends will most likely be lining up for their turn to use it. The idea of being able to see what it is like to skim around the treetops or at grass level, I doubt woulb be passed up over serious personal vaniety issues.

[Flashpoint @ May 10th 2008 9:00AM]

I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS FOR YEARS.

I always wanted to be able to fly an RC Airplane from a cockpit perspective like the pilots in the USAF do when they use a LCD monitor to control Drones.
Its not as fun with a Helicopter but this thing would be HEAVEN for a Ducted Fan Jet. Hopefully, they can make software which shows Altitude, heading and speed - it would be extremely hard to land this thing if you don't know your positioning and heading...you'd probably end up having to pull the goggles off just so you could see it and land it.


After this thing has been on the market for a while, someone's gonna get the bright idea of loading the craft with EXPLOSIVES and flying into crowded places.

[Moe @ May 10th 2008 9:52AM]

check out http://www.eagletreesystems.com/
you can see altitude, air and ground speeds, motor temp and u can also hook up a tiny gps unit to log everything

[worldspawn @ May 10th 2008 2:03PM]

The ultimate would be to have it mark points of interest in real-time. So when you're flying around, you could say, paint your location with a marker and be able to fly around and never get lost.

[nh @ May 10th 2008 5:50AM]

How long is it before you start to feel sick?

[John @ May 10th 2008 5:52AM]

Whoa, dude! Is that freedom rock?

[Galley @ May 10th 2008 9:05AM]

Yeah, man, Well, turn it up, man!

[LondonConsultant @ May 10th 2008 6:16AM]

I'd add motion sensors to the goggles and feed the info to a pan/tilt mount under the camera. And put Ride of the Valkyrie on the integrated headphones...

[Grey Acumen @ May 10th 2008 6:13PM]

Actually, that's an excellent idea, except instead of headphones, I'd like to boost the immersion level by maybe adding in small fans that would blow against your face so it'd be like feeling the wind. Might be a bit over the top though, since if you were flying a real plane, you'd likely be inside an enclosed canopy and wouldn't feel the wind anyway, but the motion sensing is an absolutely perfect idea.

[Technex @ May 10th 2008 6:26AM]

This has been done for a while in RC helis. Also in cars, with a servo mounted cam, pretty cool.

Although I seem geeky enough with just my RC stuff over the field, I doubt a eye mounted camera would improve my appearance.

[kuade @ May 11th 2008 1:37PM]

yeah, did you see that this system is a 2.4Ghz unit and will interfere with your 2.4Ghz Rx/Tx system on your plane/heli. I have never had a 72Mhz system only the 2.4Ghz breed from spektrum so the company making this product needs to do a little more research before putting out a crap product for $549

[Pradster @ May 10th 2008 6:58AM]

is that the new terminator, i would be scared if she is...coz this time they really got mad and said...."to hell with how she looks, its how she kills that matters!"

[Pradster @ May 10th 2008 6:59AM]

And look they mated her mum with cyclops! and she's got her hands on the "detonate earth" remote!

I am scared!

[Moe @ May 10th 2008 7:08AM]

i actually tried it and when u do the geeky look is worth it especially if u have a head tracker
check this out
http://youtube.com/watch?v=v0ZXnoKbxx8

[Ekauq @ May 10th 2008 7:18AM]

that was a cool vid

[Joachim Bengtsson @ May 10th 2008 8:13AM]

Holy crap Moe, that was freakin' awesome! Way better than the article's camera! I think I've seen something similar earlier though...

[LondonConsultant @ May 10th 2008 9:33AM]

Great vid...

[Michael @ May 10th 2008 1:02PM]

That is pretty cool!

[Jon Doe. @ May 10th 2008 1:14PM]

Sweet vid.....crap song...thankfully there was a solution to that :-P

[culbeda @ May 10th 2008 3:42PM]

Cool video, but the gayest song ever. I would rather have listened to the engine.

[gijs @ May 10th 2008 7:59AM]

Buy a cheapo kit on ebay and your off ! Search for wireless camera, and you will find one for 25 $ , + find a monitor ofso and your off:)

[mrpoo @ May 10th 2008 8:16AM]

I came when I saw this. Fantastic.

[Flashpoint @ May 10th 2008 9:01AM]

At least she's not flat.

If she's got as much in the trunk as she does up front, she can hang with me.

[Precise @ May 10th 2008 9:09AM]

Oh this is lame? But folks are tripping over themselves and would be happy to spend that money on a chumby or a pleo? This is what I don't get about the Tech community any more. Truly interesting innovation is put aside for things like Social Networks and under powered sub-notebooks.

[dos @ May 10th 2008 11:10AM]

Oh my god you have to wear it on your FACE!? Like, that's so not stylish!

Come on Engadget, this thing actually looks useful. I had no idea I was reading a blog for fashion freaks.

I swear every article involving an HMD has you guys going off like one of those terrible gay stereotypes on the makeover/interior design shows. There's nothing at all wrong with the things.

[ilim @ May 10th 2008 11:17AM]

is that a woman???

[aceattorney @ May 10th 2008 11:35AM]

Sure their marketing could use some work, but damn what a great idea.

[barry99705 @ May 10th 2008 11:47AM]

They have a pan tilt attachment in the works. Those cheap wireless cams on ebay suck dead donkey dick. They have about a 20 foot range.


@Precise
Yea, I don't know what the deal is either. These are a hell of alot cooler than the Pleo. As for the OMG she's ugly people, come up out of the basement and look around. Not every chick looks like the one on all those porn sites you look at.

[bvocal @ May 10th 2008 12:31PM]

ah, this is really really cool.
I always thought the bummer of RC was you were not along for the ride, now you can be. And you can go some wild places.
Check out the data systems, the advanced one even has auto pilot and will auto fly your plane back to point of take-off and land it, cool for flying in a new place and getting lost.
I dig this.

[Michael @ May 10th 2008 1:07PM]

I like the commenter's video of one head tracking... but what they really need to do is make one in stereoscopy.

For those not in the know, that means 3D. And I don't mean crappy Blue/Red 3D, I mean real 3D with two cameras and two images in the goggles.

[Jon Doe. @ May 10th 2008 1:15PM]

One word....weight

[Jon Doe. @ May 10th 2008 1:14PM]

So if you crash the plane do you die in the real world?

[Carl M @ May 10th 2008 4:32PM]

Depends upon where you crash it (and how big the plane is).

"Oh, look! I'm flying right towards myself - how cool is that?" Bonk!

[Oofa @ May 10th 2008 2:46PM]

What are you talking about? That chick looks exactly like the porn chick I stare at all day...hot!

[Cassini @ May 10th 2008 5:28PM]

Now that's a rare sight: A female with an RC *and* LCD goggles.

Here's a rare video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU

[Phoenix @ May 10th 2008 5:35PM]

RICKROLL!!!

[Phoenix @ May 10th 2008 5:34PM]

This has to qualify as one of the best Engadget gadgets that I've seen in a long time! This is freaking awesome! Now all they need to do is to make the HUD more detailed with more information and bingo! You've got it! I can just imagine what sort of fun I could have with this... especially with an F-14 Tomcat that is just over two feet long... ^_^ BOOYAH!!! I think that the price is TOTALLY worth it! What more, they could use this sort of tech for UAVs doing Search and Rescue and what not so the applications for small remotely piloted cameras which have such a small setup (as opposed to current ones which are briefcase sized or larger) would be a great boon for S&R Teams who are scanning otherwise difficult to access areas.

[yuppicide @ May 10th 2008 6:40PM]

My friend flies planes. He won some competitions. I think he'd actually do worse with this on because he wouldn't be able to tell where he is on the field (ie: near the edge or not).

[Garst @ May 11th 2008 1:43AM]

As fun as this would be until I drive past myself. I will think it's my doupleganger and start running and stream. It probably be so bad that I forget to remove the goggles inevitably run into a tree or pole. Or worse yet...TRAFFIC! I refuse to self-thin-the-herd, and prove the Darwin right!

[SOOPERGOOMAN @ May 11th 2008 2:21AM]

Tits!