drones

Two Months ago my roommate drunkenly lost my small drone on a neighbors roof. Two months later after upgrading to a larger drone I attempted a rescue of the smaller drone using hooks I made from coat hangers. Here is the result.

Headphone users, beware of the ear-splitting rotor noise about :10 in.

It’s not just animals who have a problem with our new obsession with drones and quadcopters.

Some drunk humans hate them too.

Last week a company based in California called Lucky 7 Drones was shooting instructional videos with a DJI Phantom 3 when a shirtless man walked over and quickly put an end to their production.

They were only flying it about 3-5 feet off the ground when he got irritated by it for some reason and swatted it out of the sky with his shirt like King Kong.

It flew into his leg before crashing down on the street, damaging the device.

It’s valued at $1350, and the company ended up filing a police report and writing about the incidenton their blog.

In California, vandalism of someone elses property over $900 is considered a FELONY! So the officers went to visit this gentleman and explained to him politely (which he did not respond to well) that they had the ability to arrest him on the spot for Felony Vandalism and that the local D.A. does prosecute those charges. They suggested he sober up and tomorrow (which would be today) he pay the necessary restitution to replace this item to avoid the criminal charges. As of Thursday afternoon, we have not heard from the gentleman.

A robotics company has unveiled a new drone that flies by itself and acts as your personal videographer.

“Lily” is described on the company’s website as the “world’s first throw-and-shoot camera.”

You place a tracking device on whatever you want the drone to follow, throw it up into the air when you’re ready to starting filming, and Lily will take it from there.

The camera shoots 1080p HD video, can snap pictures and also uses “computer vision” to monitor you. And unlike other drones, Lily will also record and sync audio through the tracking device.

The promotional video above shows the device in action, which looks pretty cool, although it probably takes a while to build up the courage to throw your expensive new gadget off a bridge.

The drone is waterproof and also floats, however, so if the 20 minute battery time expires while over a body of water, you won’t have to go sprinting after it like these guys did.

Lily was invented back in 2013 by two students at UC Berkeley, Antoine Balaresque and Henry Bradlow, but was officially launched Tuesday.

“It’s not the future of drones,” writes Wired, who got to test out the device. “It’s more like the future of the point-and-shoot.”

It’s currently $499 during the pre-sale, but the price will eventually go up to $999.

Ryan Chatfield was out playing with his drone on Floreat Beach in Australia this week, when its batteries died.

The videographer then sprinted after the expensive toy (he said it cost him over $2000) and managed to catch it before it took a dive in the ocean.

“I thought, ‘That’s it, it’s gone’ but I knew I just had to have a crack at it,” he told The West Australian.

And fortunately he was successful in his rescue attempt and just got a little wet in the process. He also chose the perfect song to edit into the clip using Enya’s “Orinoco Flow (Sail Away).”

We’ve seen lots of consumer drone fails over the past few years, including a guy who saved his DJI Phantom 2 from crashing into a pond at the last second.