Video of Seiko Epson's flying microbot
Ah, damnit; we'd just got the call from the boss to go and check out Seiko Epson's flying robot doing its stuff at an exhibition in Tokyo at the end of the month, when we find they've gone and held a press demo of the little beast in flight. Only consolation (not that this is schadenfreude or anything) is that the PC used for programming it for independent flight apparently threw a hissy fit on the day, so the only good video available is of a guy piloting it. They apparently also managed to get into trouble when it went out of Bluetooth range (we could introduce them to some guys who could help with that) just flitting around in an office, so it seems there's some refinement still to be done all round. One thing we can confirm, though, is that it has a camera on board to beam back images and (per the picture to the right) Seiko Epson has all kinds of sci-fi delusions in mind for its future uses. We'll still be heading to the exhibition to try and catch it in independent flight (and hoping we don't get an eye taken out by its rotors).
[MPEGs at PC Watch]
[WMV at MyCom PC Web and Japan.Cnet.com]
