Tag Archives: AscendingTechnologies

Quadrocopter fleet stuns Londoners with giant hovering Star Trek logo (video)

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Quadrocopter fleet stuns Londoners with giant hovering 'Star Trek' logo (video)

Before quadrocopters become Skynet's roaming recon fleet, they'll begrudgingly entertain us, and in a recent promotional enterprise, a swarm braved the London "spring" to remind us of the imminent launch of Star Trek: Into Darkness. Over the weekend, drone masters Ars Electronica Futurelab sent a party of 30 LED-tagged AscTec Hummingbirds halfway to Hoth, and used the relative darkness of Earth Hour to set an approximately 300-foot high Star Trek logo twinkling over Tower Bridge. A video of the event can be found below, complete with epic music and movie cut-scenes sure to send even the most Vulcan of trekkers to sickbay with hysteria. If anyone behind the promotion is reading -- please, whatever you do, just don't give them phasers.

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Source: Ars Electronica (1), (2)

Secom offers a private security drone, serves as our eyes when we’re away

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Secom offers a private security drone, serves as our eyes away from the office

Modern security cameras are rather limited: if an incident doesn't happen within a pre-defined field of vision, a company won't know what's happening until it's too late. Secom is giving anxious offices a rare solution in what's supposedly the first airborne drone for private security. Its customized Ascending Technologies quadrotor can take to the air if there's a break-in and record what's happening, even in areas that would normally represent blind spots. The automaton can also track moving subjects with a laser sensor and knows enough to keep its distance. Japanese firms wanting Secom's robot sentry will have to wait until after April 2014, when they can rent one at about ¥5,000 ($58) per month; the investment could be worthwhile just to freak out a few would-be burglars.

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Via: Phys.org

Source: Secom (translated)