BitDrones
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ICYMI: Record-setting bot walk, holographic drones and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-309632{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-309632, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-309632{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-309632").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Researchers from Queens University built tiny quadcopters that can join to form a hologram display, hovering in mid-air. A Guinness World Record for furthest distance by a quadruped robot was set in China by a quirky cute robot we'd love to see more of. And we're into this Kickstarter project for a device that would turn any watch into a smartwatch with vibration for notifications, a heart rate monitor and control for music and photos.
Researchers turn a swarm of drones into a physical hologram
The augmented reality interface in Minority Report was futuristic, but what it lacked were objects that you could physically touch, according to researchers from Queens University. The problem is that the film's virtual interface floats in mid-air, and physical objects tend to be ground-bound. To get around that, the team developed a system called BitDrones, with flying nano-drones serving several functions. "PixelDrones" have a basic LED display to show information, "ShapeDrones" are cubic objects that form a physical 3D "display," and "DisplayDrones" contain a touchscreen interface. All of them, plus the human operator, are tracked with a 3D motion capture system.
