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Very thorough Parrot AR.Drone review

Posted by Chris Anderson on September 28, 2010 at 4:33pm

A long and very thorough review of the Parrot AR.Drone is over at Toucharcade, a iPhone gaming blog. We;; worth reading the whole thing. Here's just the conclusion:

"Overall the Parrot AR.Drone seems like a very 1.0 device with loads of potential both in future hardware revisions and in future development with the AR.Drone API. Improved battery technology, higher resolution cameras, and more powerful sensors to allow for higher flights are all things I would love to see in future models. Currently the only companion app available for the AR.Drone is the Free Flightapp, but Parrot has promised other apps such as augmented reality games where two players with their own AR.Drones can have virtual dog fights, and other similar things. None of these were available at the time of this review, but I definitely can see the amazing potential for future software development."
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Comments

  • John Ryan September 29, 2010 at 11:11pm
    .. surely its impractically expensive to send an iphone 4 up into the wild blue yonder just to use its accelerometers?
  • Developer
    Randy September 29, 2010 at 4:38pm
    Someone else asked that same question on another thread. It seems it's not a problem because for the Parrot drone, the iPhone is just being used as a controller - it remains in the user's hands. What Apple has banned is actually using the iPhone as an autopilot. I.e. you can't put it on your drone and make it control the drones's attitude, etc using it's internal accelerometers.
  • John Ryan September 28, 2010 at 11:17pm
    @Scott

    Apparently, they have.

    http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/apple-bans-iphone-drones
  • Scott Lawson September 28, 2010 at 9:40pm
    Didn't apple ban UAV apps for iphone OS? Will that affect these at all?
  • Larry Lukis September 28, 2010 at 8:15pm
    The review quotes 30 minutes battery life outdoors and 45 minutes indoors. I have 2 of them, and 10 minutes is a lot closer, maybe 15 at best. But they're still a blast, surprisingly rugged, and uncannily stable. I took one to work and flew all around the office area up and down all the cube isles. The down looking camera for xy lock is surprisingly effective.
  • Developer
    Randy September 28, 2010 at 4:41pm
    The Parrot appeared on a TV show here in Japan yesterday flying around in a studio with lots of famous (in japan) people ooh-ing and ah-ing. I've never seen a quad on japanese tv before so I think they're going to be big and get a lot more people flying quads.
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