Autonomous flying umbrella follows and shields users from rain and sunlight
52 points by amichail 3 hours ago | 25 comments
12_throw_away 2 hours ago
IMO it's worth watching the video rather than reading someone's writeup of it. My favorite part is this (written) list of everything that went wrong [1] ... and how much of it is due to the intersection of hardware, software, vendors, and linux
replytantalor 2 hours ago
The video is incredibly fucking annoying
reply12_throw_away 2 hours ago
Oh, I'm so sorry. This one is more technical, does it meet with your approval? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0la5DBtOVNI
replyZigurd 2 hours ago
I saw this on Facebook before I saw it here. While it bears a superficial resemblance to 1000s of clickbaity tech stunts this one really delighted me. Some of these should be edited into a remastered release of Blade Runner.
replySubiculumCode 33 minutes ago
Following the Ukraine war has basically made me flinch at the sight and sound of drones.
replyzkmon 2 hours ago
I think this is in the category of excess application of technology
replym463 2 hours ago
I don't know - I got an automatic garbage can that not only opens and closes, it also ejects the garbage bag when it is full and vacuums in another one into place.
replytoday's luxury is tomorrow's necessity.
things get normalized. pop-up ads, selfies, subscriptions, the cybertruck...
SoftTalker 2 hours ago
The kid would appear to have a future job opportunity at Cyberdyne Systems.
replyhdorchy 41 minutes ago
noise, autonomy are real constraints. And the wind resistance is a safety critical issue.
To make it wind resistant you need to increase the drone's power/weight ratio which works against battery life/autonomy and weight (more battery, more weight)
This is a nice technical experiment but cannot work as a general public product in my opinion (I build drones since 2013 and know this topic in depth)
replyricardobayes 2 hours ago
That's really cool honestly. This took me back to around 2017 when everyone was into hardware startups.
replyderwiki 2 hours ago
Interesting, not what I remember from 2017. To which hardware startups are you referring?
replydlcarrier 32 minutes ago
One example of the peak of that craziness was in 2016, after Snapchat released glasses with an embedded camera, which were more or less received as as a gimmick by their user base, Snapchat changed their name to Snap Inc and told their investors that they're now a hardware company.
replyricardobayes 50 minutes ago
Well that was the peak of the kickstarter era, tons of wearables and new projects. You know, like Pebble
replytonymillion 32 minutes ago
Or the Nixie [1] (actually nixie was earlier, but went out of business in 2017)
replytamimio 2 hours ago
>what was supposedly a small project ended up big and complicated
replyWelcome to the drone world! So many moving parts and one tiny mistake, you end up losing a $60k drone in the ocean (true story!)
That being said, regulations prevent flying drones of any size above people, unless the drone is high to certain altitude, because of all the dangers that bring, a small issues and the props will harm them.
Cool project tho!
This would probably sell in Shenzhen.