
Flyfire - New Display Technology - unignorant
http://senseable.mit.edu/flyfire/
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eob
From what the video _doesn't_ show, it appears that Flyfire is not actually a
new display technology, it is just a neat "what if" idea that they turned into
a concept video.

The majority of the ML's output is a mix of creative dreams and proof of
concept prototypes, rather than new technologies.

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Tichy
The videos appear to just be computer simulations.

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Groxx
I'm certain they are.

If you read the description, it _strongly_ implies they've got nothing but a
plan, and they intend to set out to take steps to demonstrate the possibility
of this actually working.

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deutronium
The FireFly project is similar in some ways to this, its an actual
implementation however: <http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/~dixa/projects/firefly/>

It uses LEDs with PIC processors on each LED, the smart LEDs are then
connected to each other in a parallel arrangement I believe. The power to the
LEDs is used both as current for the LEDs as well as a data line.

Upon start up the LEDs becon out their unique ID, negotiated by communicating
over their data lines. A webcam is then used to detect the position of the
LEDs by their ID.

So effectively the chain of LEDs can be arbitrarily scattered, and by
detecting the position of the LEDs in 3D space, their software then allows
images etc. to be displayed.

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Groxx
Now THAT looks useful, especially the auto-calibration. I like the name
similarity too.

I'd suspect the helicopters would bump each other in minor air disturbances,
unless they were so far away from each other that they'd be unable to make a
dense display.

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f_sav
As much as this would make for a nice concert/show gizmo, I'm also interested
in those tiny helicopters themselves. To control them with such precision
would be impressive (well from a non specialist point of view). Yet I can't
seem to find info about them on either of the labs' sites (this one and the
ARES lab). There could be many other use for such swarms (I'm thinking
controlling a local set of cameras to get different angles, but I'm sure there
are so much more).

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glhaynes
They'd need some way of knowing where they are pretty precisely, at least
relative to... something.

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colinplamondon
I find the surveillance possibilities a lot more interesting- ubiquitous
surveillance plus unmanned ground vehicles are going to bring about a sea
change in policing and warfare. I can imagine a situation where every major
city is under constant video surveillance, the video of which is analyzed in
real-time.

After a few years of machine learning I'd imagine it'd be possible to tell
when a crime has a high probability of taking place, in which case one of
those UGVs is taken over by a human operator. In that way one cop could
control 20 different streets, only 'using' one UGV at a time, whenever the
analysis algorithms point out a potential problem.

I'm NOT saying this is necessarily a good thing- this basically means the
establishment of a police state in every industrialized nation. However, it is
all but inevitable, and these kinds of swarming helicopters, now concept, soon
a reality, ensure that inevitability.

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pl0nk
1\. The videos show these flying pixels in a grid using variable output to
form images like the Mona Lisa -- but a perhaps more interesting possibility
is using them for non-uniform sampling of an image.

Imagine all of them emitting max light output, and having none of them fly in
the black areas of the image, and the highest concentration in the brightest
areas.

2\. This could be a basis for free-floating advertisements or information.
Imagine walking around a giant outdoor mall (like the labyrinthine Irvine
Spectrum) and having pixels appear above you announcing that the next IMAX 3D
showing of Avatar is coming up, forming into a giant floating arrow saying
RIGHT THIS WAY and floating towards the theater at walking pace.

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apower
Vaporware

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mattmaroon
Prediction, within 5 years this will be a popular show in residence at the
Bellagio.

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bshep
I can see how they might use this indoors, but outdoors wind would be a huge
problem. I would be interested in knowing a bit more about the capabilities of
the mini-helicopters

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noonespecial
Could you make the font bigger, its a bit breezey today!

It would be pretty awesome to use them in a huge venue like a mega concert or
super-bowl half time show.

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zandorg
I guess those years spent watching 'unlimited bobs' in C64/Amiga demos finally
paid off...

[Note: a 'bob' is a bitmap object or a dot]

