Tech Toy Review: Parrot AR.Drone

Polly wants a quadricopter

Tech Toy Review: Parrot AR.Drone

by May Chua

Updated 01:25 PM Feb 25, 2011

NEED a spanking new tech toy to distract yourself until the new Apple iPad lands in your hands? Check out the Parrot AR.Drone ($449).

The AR.Drone is a lightweight quadricopter that you can control with a free app on the iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. Think of it as a souped-up, remote-controlled helicopter.

The drone creates its own WiFi hotspot. Once you've connected to that using your iOS device, just install the free app and launch it to start playing.

The basics of flight control are easy enough to master. There are two ways to control the drone: Place your thumb over the left button and use your iOS device as a steering wheel, or use the right button as a directional pad. A handy button at the bottom of the screen allows you to instruct the drone to land on its own.

You can fly it indoors and outdoors - we prefer indoors, where the wind is less of a factor.

Once you encounter anything stronger than a light wind, the drone becomes more difficult to control. Here's where the autopilot swoops in to save the day. When the drone is dangerously close to an obstacle, just let go of the button and it will attempt to stabilise itself and hover on the spot. It works most of the time.

We initially expected the 15-minute battery life to be a dampener, but ultimately found it better than expected. Even with constant airtime, it typically lasted longer than 15 minutes.

The quadricopter can soar to a maximum height of 50 metres - an impressive sight. However, beware of flying it too high when you are near a forested area; during one test flight, the toy nearly got stuck in a tree. Oops.

There are two cameras on the AR.Drone, one at its front and another underneath it. The video feeds are streamed back to your iPhone. If you have two drones or more, you can play augmented reality (AR) games. So far, however, only one official game app is available for the AR.Drone: AR Pursuit (US$2.99), which allows you to shoot virtual missiles at other drones. We did not get the chance to play it as we had only one review unit. The YouTube videos and game trailers looked promising, though.

This toy hit the shelves last month and has sold several hundred units so far. No models or updates are planned for now, though an Android app is in the works. It is expected to be out in a few months' time.

Though we would prefer the AR.Drone to be more wind-resistant, it still makes a cool toy for both adults and children past the destructive age. May Chua



Check out our video of the AR.Drone in action on TODAYonline's video gallery: bit.ly/TODAY_quadricopter


Source: www.todayonline.com