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Microdrones on safari

Posted by Chris Anderson on June 2, 2011 at 1:16pm


From IEEE Spectrum: "It's a well known fact that animals from the Arctic to Africa have absolutely no idea what to think about robots. Taking full advantage of this phenomenon, Microdrones let one of their MD4-1000 quadrotors loose on safari in Kenya, and it set about capturing video like you've probably never seen before."

Jason and I tried this last week with a coyote in Concord, and we can verify that it was totally unafraid of a quadcopter.  We got as close as we dared, and he didn't budge.

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Comments

  • Cliff-E June 3, 2011 at 8:36am
    Yeah, *a lot* of post done on that video. Shot transitions are too quick to show any advantages of the platform compared to a jib on a flatbed.

    To show video of constant hovering w/360 views, and obstacle flying are the [only] advantages of a camera multicopter. Though I give them credit for being able for not scaring the animals and the closeness a unique advantage. Otherwise, use a jib or dolly and your footage will be 10x better and smoother (cause you can't put a Red Epic 5K on a multicopter).
  • Bernard Michaud June 3, 2011 at 6:57am

    Next time we observe a animal from a airborne QUAD perspective(getting closer and closer), let's make up our own idea of the effect of our passion on everything that lives from 0 to 400 feet by collecting simple behavior data from our experiences.

    I'am thinking about awareness and a code of honor of some sort.

    Am I dreaming here ?

     

  • Sebastian S. June 3, 2011 at 5:41am

    I like this one, made in Cameroon:

    A nice place to fly: Hexacopter in Cameroon / Africa from W. Thielicke on Vimeo.

  • sid June 3, 2011 at 4:21am

    which spftware was used in post stabilization ? and also which camera ?

    SID

  • Dan Sibisan June 2, 2011 at 4:10pm
    "video like you've probably never seen before" , hahaha a bit exagerated :)
  • Developer
    John Arne Birkeland June 2, 2011 at 3:06pm
    If this was a commercial venture I would have expected better quality. The few seconds of actual animal footage shown seem to be heavily stabilized in post, resulting in quality and resolution degradation.
  • Moderator
    Gary Mortimer June 2, 2011 at 2:37pm
    Thats my old hood, just outside Governors Camp and the Mara River

    Heres something form way back when ;-) http://www.jdp.co.uk/programmes/Trek-Spy-on-the-Wildebeest/
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