Technology
A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.
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Oooh, have the drone zip off ahead to find and save good parking spaces for me
How would it save them for you? By buzzing around people like a giant angry bee?
Drop the drone ghost posted elsewhere in this thread
I bought it to take pictures of my roof because the insurance company wanted proof that it’s the material we said it was. My life is exciting
Used the drone to check the roof for damage to replace the tiles. Neighbors saw it and asked us if we could check as well.
Airdrop spiders on the loud party down the road.
Thats not weird, thats Genius and you deserve an award :3
Okay, I like it, but... How do you load the payload?
I just look in my garden furniture.
Are we talking flying drones only? Because i have a vaccum cleaner and mop that is basically a little ground drone to clean up my messes. I can even take over control and "fly" it with the camera feed.
If the drone could fly around the city autonomously, I would use it to digitize my city and get a personal Google Street View on steroids. I already use drone shots for structure-from-motion projects, but it would've to be autonomous for such a large-scale operation
German data protection laws would like to know your location
Not just German, the whole Europe
- European union i think a few countries that aren't in the eu think differently
Selfies. It has a better camera than my phone
I used my Dji for a group family photo at Christmas. I let my cousin try to balance his iPhone and set a timer a few times before it hit me.
I do this too, air 2s. I have to do the pics anyway. So much easier than camera + tripod + timer. I'm one of the taller ones too so I can stand in the back with the remote behind someone else.
As a something for taking photos on vacation could be pretty awesome, as you can get many more angles
I've used mine to blow the leaves out of gutters on the roof. Just fly very low and let the prop wash do the work.
We played a game with our Cub Scouts where they would set up a pyramid of red plastic cups in a field and then fly a drone equipped with a release mechanism to drop a ball from as high as they wanted to take it and see how accurate their aim was. Their aim was terrible and hilarious and they ended just running through the cups and throwing them at each other, but loved thinking about where to position the drone and ask about doing it again a lot.
I see you're training the next generation of drone combat specialists.
I actually own and use drones for these things:
Scouting out roads/hiking-biking trails/camping spots/photog raphy spots. The drone has saved a good bit of time, and kept me from going down some real nasty roads for no payoff or just regular roads that dead end somewhere that has no view, or already has someone parked at. Similarly my ebike is also helpful for scouting out roads to see if it's worth taking the van down. Yes, I'm conscious of drone laws and how obnoxious they are, I do my best to minimize noise and am careful about not bothering people, people deserve to hear nature in nature.
Figuring out if I have to clean the gutters again.
Make friends.
One time I used it as a birds eye view with VR(ish) goggles for fun. It was fun, it was awful.
Take pictures of a friend's van's solar installation for insurance purposes.
Things I do that aren't weird:
Take aerial photography/videography.
Fly around and have fun.
I may use a drone for the following, but have yet to:
Get a different view to see if I'm gonna run the van into tree limbs, rocks, etc.
Fly a cup of sugar to a neighbor who would like to borrow some.
Have an outdoor "ceiling" light.
If you have any questions, ask away.
Fly a cup of sugar to a neighbor
Using what attachment?
If it was a one time thing, some tape and string, I'd just hover it and they'd snip it.
If this was something I wanted to do frequently, there are fairly cheap attachments that you can drop things with, which would be more fun, and I wouldn't have to worry about the person snipping the string tugging it and causing danger to themselves and/or the drone.
They're a battery, little servo to move a pin, and usually a photosensitive trigger, and you can drop things by turning the auxiliary/landing light on or off.
Here's the first Amazon result for that type of device it's $37 and has a max payload of 500 grams.
Did you mean to link something?
I personally want to have an automated camera-turret guided by microphone triangulation, and small fleet of drones that will launch when any loud car is detected driving in my neighborhood past 10PM that will both collect video evidence of their license plate, the driver's face, and hopefully scare the living shit out of them as punishment for disturbing my beauty sleep.
You forgot the piezoelectric lighter and the roman candle
I often get stuck waiting for a train on my way to/from work. I’ve often wanted to have a drone so I could figure out how long I’d have it wait, and see if it’s worth it to go around.
Id love to have one just follow my daughter (5 yr old) around and record her conversations/talking to herself. She is so adorable and funny. I love the way her mind works and would enjoy listening to her stream of conciousness.
I wonder if you could already begin doing this with a mic, memory card, and battery pack for a tiny phone or similar device! A fully powered Zoom H4n can record for hours. I wanna hear what she says, at any rate.
And their audio quality is amazing
Hypothetical: dashcam god eye view.
Dashcams (or rather fancy backup+ systems) already do this! They take 4 or more cameras, assume the top of your car is bland, and stitch them together. Super cool tech.
It was already good at least 6 years ago , these days it's built in in and better.
If you're brave enough, you could throw on some VR, have the drone follow you, and drive around in 3rd person.
I did that once, albeit walking, not driving, and the drone had no auto flight programming. It was really hard to do anything more than walking on flat ground. Bumpy ground, difficult. Try to grab something on a shelf, difficult. This was a few years back, so tech is better, having auto follow would free up some brain power, but it'd still be real rough.
There's a video of a bunch of soccer players trying to play using VR and a camera above the field, it's got some funny moments.
Drive by wire. What could go wrong?!?
They did that with a 30-40 foot stick a few years ago, and the initial attempts by the driver were hilarious. They didn't show improvement because I'm sure it wouldn't be as funny, but I think we all forget how difficult it first was to match up how far to push the stick left or right for a particular turn. Now imagine an actual wheel.
I used mine to inspect the solar panels on our roof - https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2017/03/inspecting-solar-panels-using-a-drone/
I wanted to see if they were covered in bird shit. They weren't.
Note when I did this, it was legal to fly a drone that close to private property. I don't think it still is.
I did exactly this, and also checked on the status of my gutters. My roof is 40ft above street level, and it’s scary to climb up there myself.
Walk the dog
This guy walks... The dog