Parrot AR.Drone: Enhancing the Flying Experience

June 9, 2011 | Filed under: Industry News,Mobility | Posted by:

ardrone

I want one of these, I love remote control things, but I especially love RC flying stuff.. Good news is that they’re expanding things with support for Android and others.

 

E3 Expo — Parrot, leaders in wireless peripherals for mobile phones, revolutionised the video gaming world by creating the AR.Drone, the first flying object in Augmented Reality piloted through Wi-Fi.

Today Parrot goes even further with a number of announcements to enhance the piloting experience for players and fans alike:

  • More playable platforms : Parrot AR.Drone is now compatible with OS Android™ Smartphones, bada (Samsung) and Symbian (Nokia)
  • More games: Challenge your piloting skills on your own customised circuits, zigzag your way through trees, inflatable pylons and donuts and race against the clock with AR.Race, a customizable single or multi-player racing game for the AR.Drone.

There will be more surprises to add to the growing catalogue of games for the AR.Drone soon.

  • More interactions: Who will be the No. 1 AR.Drone pilot 2011? Parrot has set up the AR.Drone Challenges, an international competition* taking place from June 24, through August 14, 2011 and consist of three challenges for a chance to compete in the October 2011 grand final in Paris.

*Competition is open to over 18’s only. Available regulations on www.ardrone.com .

For more information, visit www.parrot.com.

More playable platforms : Android ™ , bada and Symbian

Android™ Smartphones users will find a free version of AR.FreeFlight’s piloting application developed by Parrot in July 2011 on the Android Market.

At the same time, Playsoft Games – for Samsung – and Nokia used the Parrot AR.Drone Software Development Kit (available for free at https://projects.ardrone.org) to develop “Free Flight” (bada) and “AR.Drone” (Symbian) piloting apps.

The SDK allows new developers to create new applications for the AR.Drone across iOS, Android™, bada or Symbian platforms.

More games: Create customised circuits with AR.Race

AR.Race is a racing game that allows one-to-four pilots to challenge themselves on the same circuit constituted by their natural environment, such as trees, or inflatable items (pylons and donut) to zigzag between trees, by-pass pylons or to get through the donut.

Still to come: Parrot will launch a brand new game involving two players and a single AR.Drone.

A confrontation between the man and the machine, a track race where the target is not necessarily the one suspected.

More interactions: AR.Drone Challenges

After registering at www.ardrone.com, the participants* will be invited to compete against other AR.Drone enthusiasts in three “video” challenges, revealed online on June 24, July 8 and July 22. Pilots will have to film their expertise and response to the challenges, and post their videos on a website or social sharing platform before August 14, 2011. The top 14 finalists will compete in the grand international final, on October 1, 2011 in Paris.

AR.Drone Challenge Calendar :

June 24: First challenge

August 14: End of the competition

July 8: Second challenge

August 26: Announcement of 14 finalists

July 22: Third challenge

October 1: Grand final in Paris

*Competition is open to over 18’s only. Available regulations on www.ardrone.com