A quadriplegic man who is confined to his bedroom has used his computing expertise to see the world from his bedroom, by flying a camera-mounted drone up to thousands of miles.
Stuart Turner could soon be looking round the Grand Canyon or Niagra Falls using the 2kg flying device, which he controls by moving his head his head and eyes using Google Glass computer worn on his head.
The 36-year-old has lost the use of his arms and legs over the past 10 years, due to spine and brain disorders including spina bifida, tethered spinal cord syndrome and chiari malformation.
Mr Turner, who was forced to drop out of a degree in computer science, has been developing the drone, and the software to control it, with scientists at Brown University, Rhode Island. He uses a Parrot AR Drone which has four separate rotary blades with a camera mounted on its body.
The device is still in testing phase, meaning that Mr Turner has so far only flown it around campus. He hopes to develop it further by replacing Google Glass with a type of virtual reality headset that will give him a three-dimensional, panoramic view of the drone’s location.
Comments
That is a real inspiring story, good for him!
Link to November 2013 TED Talk about Henry Evans, another quadriplegic who is exploring via drone. Link to the blog by Henry and Jane Evans, 'Robots For Humanity; Extending the capabilities of people'. Link to a November 2014 post, 'The Paralyzed Pilot; FPV Technology Knows No Bounds'..
Hmmm, seems he lives just 20 minutes drive from me...
They also forgot an AR Drone has practically no range.
That was wicked cool! Thanks for sharing! Definitely one of my new the favorite uses for drones.
"Stuart Turner could soon be looking round the Grand Canyon or Niagra Falls" unfortunately he will not due to state park regulations.
The HUGE size of a Soul .