Parrot AR.Drone Quadricopter Controlled by iPhone/iPod touch/iPad

The AR Drone Quadricopter a mind-blowingly cool toy and an efficient way of making new friends at the park, its support for augmented reality gaming could really help it take off.

Just hit the auto take off button and set the altitude you want it to hover at and the bird will do the rest. 10 minutes of complete hands off hovering – tell that to any RC heli pilot and they will look at you as if you came from another planet!

The Parrot AR.Drone is one of the coolest holiday gifts this season!

The AR.Drone remote-control quadricopter is a groundbreaking device combining the best of many worlds, including modeling, video gaming, and augmented reality. The AR.Drone is normally remote-controlled through an iphone and features a number of sensors, including a entrance camera, vertical camera, and an ultrasound altimeter.. The AR.Drone can also be used in video games, such as AR.FlyingAce, a dogfight between two AR.Drones.

The AR.Drone certainly is the first quadricopter which is controlled by an iphone 3gs, iPod touch, or ipad..

High-technology Sensors Offer Simple Piloting

A mix of captors, wide-angle camera, high-speed camera and MEMS (micro electro mechanical systems), accelerometer, gyro sensors, and ultrasound sensor combine with a powerful on-board computer to make piloting the AR.Drone easy.

Simply use your iPhone or iPod touch, and just tilt and touch to control the AR.Drone.

The AR Drone quadricopter is about the size of a large pizza and weighs less than a pound. It’s a small package, but its tech is fierce: two cameras, a three-axis accelerometer, two gyrometers, an ultrasound sensor, and four rotors spinning at 35,000 rpm. It’s also packed with an ARM9 processor and 802.11b/g Wi-Fi (the Drone actually creates its own Wi-Fi network, which your iDevice connects to, enabling outdoor missions). Almost the entire package rad-ness is actually piloted using AR..FreeFlight application on your own iPhone, ipod touch, or ipad.

This is perhaps the most unique aspect about the Parrot AR Drone, and why I feel it and subsequent generations of AR’s are going to be one of the most popular RC aircraft of all time for both people just starting out and looking for an easy to fly RC helicopter platform or for people who have no interest in RC flight at all and just want to have an enormous amount of fun with a super easy to fly techie gadget.