Where can you see a video of MITs swarm of mini-helicopters for free?”
Download full size image MIT ‘Micro Helicopters’ Generate Unique, Free-Form Display Posted on: Friday, 19 February 2010, 09:35 CST Imagine that pixels could fly out of your computer screen and create an immersive, luminous cloud capable of displaying digital information in three-dimensional space. This is the vision beyond Flyfire, a new project put together by researchers at MIT’s SENSEable City Lab and Aerospace Robotics and Embedded Systems Laboratory (ARES Lab). Flyfire uses a large number of remotely controlled, self-organizing “micro helicopters”. Each helicopter contains small LEDs and acts as a smart pixel. Through digitally controlled movements, the helicopters perform elaborate and synchronized choreographies, generating a unique free-form display in three-dimensional space. “It’s like when Winnie the Pooh hits a beehive: a swarm of bees comes out and chases him while changing its configuration to resemble a beast,” said E Roon Kang, a research fellow at the SENSEable City La
The true slant website has a video of the mini-helicopter created by MIT that you can view for free. From left to right: Awesome mini-helicopter created at MIT, potential 3D image created by a swarm of said helicopters, and the Mona Lisa created by the miniature flying robots. Eat your hearts out, fireflies! What could be cooler than a massive swarm of mini-helicopters equipped with LEDs to create awesome 3D images in the sky? Not a whole lot, I can tell you that much. Fireworks are likely to see a swift end if this project takes off, and here’s a video showing how and why.
