Japanese Company Builds AR.Drone: the Coolest iPhone Toy Ever Built!

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

If you haven't gotten an iPhone yet, then I think today's blog will give you just one more reason to go out and get one. A Japanese company named Parrot has come out with the coolest Augmented Reality device I have ever seen!

What is Augmented Reality? It is an extremely fascinating and cool function that iPhones can do.  Augmented Reality allows you to, say, use you iPhone as a "map" or direction finder when you are lost in a city. You just point the camera in your iPhone at the street or buildings, and you iPhone will tell you which way to walk to get to where you want to go.

Wikiedia says about Augmented Reality:

Augmented reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are augmented by virtual computer-generated imagery. It is related to a more general concept called mediated reality in which a view of reality is modified (possibly even diminished rather than augmented) by a computer. As a result, the technology functions by enhancing one’s current perception of reality.

In the case of Augmented Reality, the augmentation is conventionally in real-time and in semantic context with environmental elements, such as sports scores on TV during a match. With the help of advanced AR technology (e.g. adding computer vision and object recognition) the information about the surrounding real world of the user becomes interactive and digitally usable. Artificial information about the environment and the objects in it can be stored and retrieved as an information layer on top of the real world view. The term augmented reality is believed to have been coined in 1990 by Thomas Caudell, an employee of Boeing at the time^[1].

Get that? No... Well, I think my explanation, while very simplistic, is easier to understand. 

If you still don't get it, watch this video for a very cool new "toy" that is suited for use with an iPhone. It is called an "AR.Drone." Read about AR.Drone here.


The best explanation for the AR.Drone is not me writing explanations, but you watching this short video. 

DOUBLE CLICK ON IMAGE TO VIEW FULL SCREEN

Is that cool or what? I definitely cannot show this to my six-year-old son!

Once again, having an iPhone opens an entire new world of possibilities!

Thanks to Michio Hashimoto! Find him on Twitter @alakane

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Keywords: AR.Drone, iPhone, Marketing Japan, Mike Rogers, alakane, Mike in Tokyo Rogers