The Verge reports:
Fatdoor's plan is to allow neighbors with drones to synchronize their flight paths and even set landing locations outside their homes, making deliveries easy. Those deliveries will have to stay fairly light though: the Skyteboard will only hold around a pound of cargo, but that should at least let you borrow a cup of sugar. Fatdoor also recommends mounting a GoPro camera onto the Skyteboard. The drone already has one camera built in, and Fatdoor thinks that a two-camera system will make it perfect for neighbors who want to record their kids' soccer games with drones flying overhead — however strange a sight that might be.
Fatdoor's goal is to have its network and drones facilitate interaction throughout local communities, restoring the lost communication from a more innocent time in the world. It even thinks that a squad of drones might be able to fly a banner around a neighborhood advertising an event, getting everyone up and out of their homes for a block party. Most neighbors might call that a nuisance, but Fatdoor is hoping that believers in its dream of a connected neighborhood will get together to raise $300,000 to make it happen. Drones are being offered as rewards for $1,099 a piece.
From the Kickstarter listing:
The Skyteboard 3G features onboard 3G cellular, WiFi, and a payload capacity of 1 lbs. This allows you to add a GoPro Hero 3 Camera to compliment the Skyteboard 3G’s impressive internal Full HD camera, enabling two cameras on the single quadcopter. We hope to achieve a flight time of up to 15 minutes (and extended with an extra capacity battery). In addition, attachments to the Skyteboard 3G can be made with a 3D printer of your own, so you can design a payload extension that meets your wishes.
Folded up Skyteboard is easy to transport!
Installing the Skyteboard's Full HD Camera
With foldable bottom rotors, the Skyteboard 3G is comparable in size to a skateboard, and is easily transported when not in use. It is designed in collaboration with one of the world's best design agencies, IDEO in Palo Alto.
We have already built functional prototypes of the Skyteboard 3G. The Skyteboard currently works via radio frequency control (RC), but we already have an iOS and Android app for the social network built (available now on iTunes and Google Play) for our social network. We also now have the Skyteboard coordinating with our mobile app over WiFi, and are about 2 weeks away from having the Skyteboard prototype communicating both its position and altitude with our backend database via 3G. We have a world class team from the world's leading institutions for aeronautics and robotics from Stanford, NASA, and U.C. Berkeley, complemented by experienced social networking software developers with a track record of creating amazing products such as Cafe Press and Trademarkia.
Hairong, Manuel, and Jose priming the Skyteboard for flight in Mountain View, Ca
With more than sixty patents pending worldwide, the Skyteboard 3G is defining a new class of socially networked aerial vehicles. The Skyteboard 3G has a whole new shape and function - one that is designed to inspire users to think differently about safe and friendly neighborhood interactions and flights in the air. Please help us make the Skyteboard a reality by donating to our campaign today! Thank you!
Comments
This is proof that studying in prestigious universities is not a guarantee to be smart.
I wish great success. If you change perceptions regarding Quad Rotor technology and present a less scary face to it, we all benefit.
The folding design is nice, but I have to say 60 patents seems excessive and pretty scary especially given the overall solution appears to only have a couple of real innovations. Most tech companies grow up and go public with 10 to 20 patents total!
Given failure seems inevitable for this project, what happens to those 60 patents?
Lol, agreed John!
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blog/show?id=705844%3ABlogPost%3A1680...
Social network integrated multi-copters? Really? Neighborhood control? Seriously? Surely this is a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. $300k is a huge amount of money to ask for given the amount of readily available multirotors out there and with a price tag of $1100 each i'm surprised they've even got to $3 of funding. Surely this is a complete non-starter
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