Drone aircraft are becoming more and more popular for hobbyists to use for fun, photography, and other purposes. A new drone has surfaced called the LAB drone and it is designed to be a sort of living drone capable of expressing emotion on its face.
The drones face is a smartphone and it makes expressions and displays emotion to help the owner know what the drone is feeling. The drone is also able to make a twitter sound via the smartphone microphone. A special app does have to be running on the smartphone for the emotion aspect to work.
The smartphone brain for the LAB drone also takes care of flight control for the drone by sending commands to the drone’s integrated processor. Connectivity between the smartphone and processor inside the LAB is done via USB or Bluetooth.
The app running on the smartphone allows the pilot to choose the “face” by playing whatever image on the smartphone screen they want. The LAB API software is currently available for Android devices and it allows you to write commands that the drone follows. The LAB drone is on Kickstarter right now seeking $50,000 and has raised less than $2,000 so far with 22 days to go. A pledge of $239 or more will get you a complete LAB frame kit minus flight controller, electronics, motors, and propellers. For $659 or more, you get a built and tested LAB only needing your battery, RC transmitter and receiver, and a smartphone.
SOURCE: Kickstarter
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