The Parrot AR Drone has captured the attention of many a gadget geek over the past couple of years for pretty obvious reasons: The thing is just cool, and really fun to play with.

As Parrot’s CEO Henri Seydoux told John Biggs here at TechCrunch’s on-site stage at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, a big part of what makes the 2.0 Version of the Parrot AR Drone so fune to use is that it’s much more advanced than your typical toy in the technology department. Essentially, Seydoux says, the AR Drone 2.0 is “a flying smartphone,” with a smartphone processor, a smartphone sensor, and a smartphone-level HD camera.

And Parrot has some new technology in the pipeline that will amp up the Drone’s capabilities even more. The company is set to roll out a new “Flight Recorder” add-on with GPS and Flash memory that can function as the AR Drone’s “black box,” monitoring the details of the Drone’s flights.

But it’s important to note that Parrot is not focused only on the Drone. Another upcoming product the company is developing is very different from the Drone but seems especially clever to me is “Flower Power,” which uses sensor technology to monitor the health of your houseplants at a very granular level.

Watch Seydoux and Biggs talk about all that and more (as the AR Drone 2.0 whirs overhead) in the video embedded above.

Crunchbase

• PARROT

Company: Parrot

Website: parrot.com

Launch Date: 1994

Parrot, a global leader in wireless devices for mobile phones, stands on the cutting edge of innovation. The company was founded in 1994 by Henri Seydoux as part of his determination to drive the inevitable breakthrough of mobile phones into everyday life by creating high-quality, user-friendly wireless devices for easy living. Parrot has developed the most extensive range of hands-free systems on the market for cars. Its globally recognised expertise in the fields of mobile connectivity and multimedia around...

→ Learn more