geekosystem

Have you always wanted a tiny robot that hovers behind you, documenting your every move, but don't want to spend thousands of dollars on a lumbering UAV or a quadcopter so noisy it can't join you inside fancy restaurants? Of course you have, because it's pretty clearly the coolest part of living in a self-inflicted Orwellian police state. Well, your long wait is getting close to over with the announcement of MeCam, a tiny, digital camera-equipped quadcopter that will follow you around and upload pictures and videos of you to Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and more in real time. Even better? The MeCam is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, and should retail for just $50 when it comes to market early next year, meaning you'll never again have to worry about living an unexamined life.

Winter is a notoriously dull time of year for many people living in Norway, since there's not much one can do when everything is covered in a white blanket of snow. That is aside from the country's time-honored recreational activity: Sending out quadcopters rigged with video cameras to spy on the local moose population. Do they appreciate this unsolicited attention? Probably not, as moose are incapable of human levels of speech, but that should by no means stop you from watching some Norwegians laughing at a curious moose as though it were some cheeky Monty Python sketch.

Tired of walking your kid to the bus stop every morning? Inventive dad Paul Wallich was. That's why he outsourced the gig to a quadcopter keyed in to track a GPS beacon stashed in his son's backpack. The result is a pretty amazing piece of high-tech parenting -- a flying drone that can follow his child from a set distance and make sure the kid stays out of trouble.

Researchers at Cornell University working on a grant from DARPA have crafted a quadrocopter robot that can navigate around obstacles in real-time using a new type of 3D vision. This autonomous vision could pave the way for flying rescue robots that don't have to be controlled by humans and can enter caves or broken-down buildings and navigate on their own. Of course, it also paves the way for flying murderbots that can see us wherever we hide and means no place will ever be safe again, but, you know, you take the good with the bad.

At this year's Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors' Showcase held at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, 16 quadrotor robots put on an unbelievable show. Using mirrors, LEDs, and some kind of sound manipulation system, the robots beeped and booped through a wigged out techno piece chillingly called "Meet Your Creator." Art or ultimatum, you need to watch this. Video, after the break.

Dutch artist Bart Jansen was in mourning after his cat was run over by a car and killed. In the midst of his grief, inspiration struck Jansen: Take his cat's stuffed, tanned body and turn it into a quadrotor helicopter. And the name of this deceased, flying feline? Orville.

We've seen quadrotor robots do some pretty amazing things, but Raffaello D'Andrea has taken robotic art to new heights when he teamed up with architects Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler to build a 20-foot tall tower from 1,500 foam bricks. The twist is that each brick was carefully placed by an autonomous flying drone, and is on display while under construction.