Ascending Technologies showed off some of their technology during the Super Bowl Halftime show. If you have seen the video, the formations look awesome in the night sky. The only issue was that the sequences were taped days prior to the Super Bowl and Lady Gaga was likely standing in front of a green screen when she "leaps" into the stadium. To the trained eye, it seemed a bit staged and unfortunately, it detracted from the difficulty and challenges of flying that many UAV's. A few Intel reps talk a bit about the project details in the following article. Enjoy.
Link to Article: The Intel(AscTec) Drones Behind the Super Bowl Halftime Show
Comments
It would have been nice if they just made a commercial about the challenges of getting hundreds of robots to collaborate and show that instead of trying to dupe the audience into thinking it was part of a live, real-time event. They opened the roof to create the illusion that it was a live event. Wonder what would have happened if it was pouring down rain outside during half-time and they we're not able to open the roof?
I think it was more about showing that you are on the forefront using the latest in buzzword technology, then actually entertainment value for the viewers. And if you look at news headlines it seem to have worked very well..
If you're into UAVs like we are, then you think this tech demo is cool. But the fact is that there wasn't anything on screen that couldn't have been done in CG for peanuts. Somebody needs to come up with a application for swarming for media that can't be done in CG.
The fact that they pre-recorded it is disappointing. IMO, if you can't do the show live, there's no point doing it. Might as well have been all CG. The point of these shows is the incredible 3D effect you have when you are seeing it live.
Sooo disappointing that I thought it was live. I guess she didnt actually jump from the stadium roof either :-(
AV News Story re: Super Bowl drones