Due to the amount of information crammed into day 1 of the Google I/O conference, I am blitzing through everything that happened, keeping it short and to the point.

Right next to the Chevy Volt, which, by the way, is quite a looker, I saw a couple of guys playing with odd flying machines, called AR Drones. After spending a few minutes talking to them, we got a nice lengthy demo, and let me tell you, this flying monster is beyond cool.

  • AR Drone is a flying RC type UFO looking thing
  • here is the kicker: it is controlled by your Android phone (here they used a Nexus One)
  • you touch the screen and tilt the phone, which controls the direction of where your AR Drone flies
  • it uses Adhoc WiFi, which doesn't require a router and can be used freely in an open field
  • check this out: the AR Drone has dual video cameras which transmit the live feed to the Android phone that is controlling it
  • the covers are interchangeable, so you can have different looking drones
  • the price is unknown and will be "a couple hundred bucks"

Check out the pics and the videos I took below:

The last shot, which I took after I had already left the demo, is quite hilarious - the constant buzzing above my head made me come back to the AR Drone table and witness the drone glued to the ceiling, trying desperately to fly away, without any desire to come down. I hope these guys don't start making real airplanes any time soon.

Check out these videos showing AR Drone in action. Sorry for the non-HD quality - I'm planning on buying an HD camera soon (or see if the EVO 4G quality is good enough).

[EMBED_YT]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT_OSblo-Og

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[EMBED_YT]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ8m0kJJ5DM

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