I must admit that when we first heard about
the Parrot AR. Drone late last year, it was fair to say that everyone in
the office was impressed. And over the 2010 Christmas break, we all had a chance to fly this quadricopter via
our iPhone, iPod
Touch and iPad. Best of all, this remote control helicopter could be
used both indoors and outdoors but you're probably wondering does it
live up to the hype and the simple answer is yes.
Features
When you first open the box, you'll be quite surprised at how
lightweight the drone is. The lightness of the product is also needed to
successfully fly the device but it can also cause a problem in high winds which
generally push the AR.Drone in the wrong direction and definitely could
be devastating if you are too close to a tree or a house. There is
however an emergency button on the app which basically forces it to land. However
all in all, it's quite a cool looking device that did turn quite a few
heads while we were using it outside.
In order to get the Parrot AR.Drone up and flying, all we needed to do
was connect the lithium battery to the body of the unit and then
download the "controller" app from iTunes called "Free Flight". Once the
zero cost
app was installed on our iPhone 3GS, I turned on the Parrot AR.Drone and
then searched for WiFi network of the unit. Once it was found, we were ready
to fly this very cool technological drone that made full use of its
features, including that of the control devices (iPhone, iPod Touch and
iPad) and made it a joy to use.
When you have paired your Apple smart device to the drone, you
automatically see what the cameras are looking at and this includes both
the front camera and bottom facing camera. You can mix and match between
cameras which does make things interesting, especially in terms of
flight control. This application even allows you to tweak the device
from the sensitivity of the controls to setting degrees in relation to
banking. It may be a little technical but it's worth investigating these
options.
Controlling the device is relatively simple but it does take a little
time to master. You'll be flying in no time but to fine tune your
piloting, practice does make perfect. To take to the skies, you simple
push a button on your app and then you use the touch virtual thumb stick on the bottom left of the screen to move forwards or
backwards and by tiling your iPhone to the side, it will make it turn in
that direction.
There is another option for altitude and we were
thoroughly impressed at the responsive controls of the application and
more particularly from your smart drive to the AR.Drone. As the device
uses WiFi and if you fly too high or too far away, once the connection
is lost, the AR.Drone will automatically engage in its own landing
process. In terms of distance, Parrot have stated that you can control
the AR. Drone around 45 metres but unfortunately due to weather
conditions, we could not reach this distance. The unit also has the
ability to correct itself should you bank too highly which does create a
sense of autopilot at times.
With all the positive aspects of this review, the Parrot AR.Drone does
have a few issues. Firstly, it's upper
EPP (Expanded Polypropylene) body isn't the strongest material in the
world. The review unit that we tested obviously had a crash before us and
part of the upper body was damaged. In no way did this hamper the flight
of the drone but it is a good note for those wanting to buy this that
the unit is quite light and is not indestructible.
Another potential
issue is that the WiFi network of the drone is not encrypted and if two
people had the same app, it would be a case of first in, best dressed in
order to gain control. We did try to hijack the drone from our iPad
while an iPhone was controlling it but fortunately once the connection
is made to the initial device, it will ensure that other people cannot
take over. As the four helicopter blades are constantly being used,
battery life is around 30 to 60 minutes and depends on a variety of
factors from winds and how much control you exert over it. Charging took
over an hour.
In conclusion, the future of the Parrot AR.Drone has some amazing potential.
Even though the unit is a little pricey and there are some limitations,
we cannot wait to see some of the augmented reality games for it as you
have dog fights and fire "virtual" missiles at each other. Although if
you own an iPad, it's not as fun as using it with an iPhone or iPod
Touch because the iPad is just a little too large. The camera does look
far superior on the iPad due to the size but in terms of control and
comfortability,
the smaller Apple devices are far better. Currently, the Parrot
AR.Drone is available for $349 and their website contains a plethora
of great additions for the device. We enjoyed reviewing this product and are eagerly awaiting the
next instalment for this quadricopter.
Don't believe us? Visit the website (www.parrotshopping.com)
and check out the video below!
