Swarming helicopters create 3D display

John Biggs

Biggs is the East Coast Editor of TechCrunch. Biggs has written for the New York Times, InSync, USA Weekend, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Money and a number of other outlets on technology and wristwatches. He is the former editor-in-chief of Gizmodo.com and lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. You can Tweet him here and G+ him here. Email him directly at... → Learn More

Thursday, February 18th, 2010


If we’re going to be killed by swarming robots, they might as well look good doing it. Scientists at the MIT SENSEable City lab created a 3D display using tiny remote controlled helicopters that float in patterns in the air and light up, thereby creating a volumetric display.

Called the Flyfire, it seems that this is either still in concept stages or they’ve gotten it to work in limited situations. Obviously these little helicopters are really hard to fly but presumably you could do this fairly easily in a closed room – although propeller interference could be an issue.

via DVice

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