Normally, NoodleMac is all Mac. Today is an exception. Why? The Parrot AR Drone Wi-Fi Quad Helicopter. It works with the iPhone (sorta of like having a Mac in my pocket).
The Fun
First, the fun part. What is the Parrot AR Drone. It’s a battery powered toy helicopter (not much bigger than flying model airplanes) that can be controlled via Wi-Fi. It can fly inside or outside.
AR Drone uses four helicopter blades, with or without a plastic protective cover (good for indoor flying). It uses the iPhone for control.
Second, maybe this is a guy thing, but flying model planes (and boats and trains) is a pleasant, enriching, and somewhat scientific activity. A flying helicopter (a quadrocopter, in the case of the AR Drone, with four electric motors and blades) offers more flight control; up, down, left, right, forward, even backward.
AR Drone comes with two video cameras which feed video images back to the iPhone in real time. That means games. Real, live, interactive video games using augmented reality.
The Danger
A quiet, lightweight, remote-controlled airborne drone with built in cameras that broadcast back to a controller is the domain of the military. Such devices are expensive (cheap compared to the cost of pilots and planes) and used with great success to take out terrorists in remote areas.
That means develop and deployment costs are high, and few governments can afford the technology, or have access to satellites to make them effective military weapons.
The AR Drone does the same thing at a fraction of the cost. Could terrorists use a more powerful version of the device to carry a bomb, and guide it, via remote control, to any nearby destination? All controlled by an iPhone?
Scary.
The Parrot AR Drone site has a number of enticing videos which show the drone in action, using only the iPhone as the controller.