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Drone Swarm Creates Star Trek Logo In London Sky 118

garymortimer writes "As a harbinger for the Paramount film 'Star Trek — Into Darkness', starting in May in Europe's cinemas, last night a swarm of 30 mini-helicopters equipped with the LED lights drew the Star Trek logo into the skies over London. The choreography for the show was developed by Ars Electronica Futurelab from Linz (Austria). Quadrocopter maker Ascending Technologies GmbH from Munich (Germany) provided the aircrafts."
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Drone Swarm Creates Star Trek Logo In London Sky

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  • If the Doctor had to intervene before they actually created the whole Enterprise, and if Daleks were at the root of it?

  • Cause, they look barely visible at 1080p, with or without the background lights.

    • by Nyder ( 754090 )

      Cause, they look barely visible at 1080p, with or without the background lights.

      I blame the smog.

      • Cause, they look barely visible at 1080p, with or without the background lights.

        I blame the smog.

        Cor blimey me ol China, there's a right pea souper tonight, chim-chimminee, stroike a loight, up the apple and pears to the rub a dub dub.

    • by realityimpaired ( 1668397 ) on Tuesday March 26, 2013 @06:13AM (#43279619)

      I'd imagine that people had no trouble seeing them. Have you ever tried to take a picture of the night sky with a digital camera? Most of them, especially the cheap P&S or cell phone cameras that people would actually be likely to have on them, have a hard time picking up the stars too, even though they're plainly visible to anybody who bothers to look.

      • Most of them, especially the cheap P&S or cell phone cameras that people would actually be likely to have on them, have a hard time picking up the stars too, even though they're plainly visible to anybody who bothers to look.

        Depends entirely on where you are.

        Most urban locations have so much light pollution that the amount of stars you can see if hugely reduced. On a clear summer night out my back yard, most of the stars are washed out in the background light, and only the really bright stuff is visibl

      • Most of them, especially the cheap P&S or cell phone cameras that people would actually be likely to have on them, have a hard time picking up the stars too, even though they're plainly visible to anybody who bothers to look.

        Well, besides those shots not being taken by a "cheap P&S or cell phone", and the photo where you actually see the lights being clearly overexposed or photoshopped to make the lights visible (the entire sky is glowing from the photo-manipulation) - I was asking has anyone ACTUALLY seen that stunt, live.
        Not, if it would be visible, perhaps, maybe, at certain conditions, with binoculars, from a certain angle, if you are 7 feet tall, standing on a hill... whatever.

        Has anyone actually witnessed it take plac

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Fascinating.

  • by Psion ( 2244 ) on Monday March 25, 2013 @11:21PM (#43278617)
    All I can say is, "Bad Robots!"
  • by 1u3hr ( 530656 ) on Monday March 25, 2013 @11:22PM (#43278627)

    provided the aircrafts.

    Plural of "aircraft" is -- "aircraft".

  • LED Lights? (Score:5, Funny)

    by fustakrakich ( 1673220 ) on Monday March 25, 2013 @11:27PM (#43278645) Journal

    Don't try this in Boston

    • Re:LED Lights? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ragnarok ( 6947 ) on Tuesday March 26, 2013 @12:02AM (#43278763)

      It would be illegal in the US anyway thanks to the FAA.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      LED Lights

      It is important to distinguish Light Emitting Diode Lights from my new invention, the Dark Emitting Diode Lights!
      These new form of DED Lights beam a high intensity ray of stupid out at 35 degrees, blinding with dull sparkling amazement anyone near by.

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward

        LED Lights

        It is important to distinguish Light Emitting Diode Lights from my new invention, the Dark Emitting Diode Lights! These new form of DED Lights beam a high intensity ray of stupid out at 35 degrees, blinding with dull sparkling amazement anyone near by.

        It's been done, we call it television. :-)

  • Who edits this stuff?? (the video, not the submission)

    • by macshit ( 157376 )

      Who edits this stuff?? (the video, not the submission)

      It doesn't look like the editors had a whole lot to work with ... the quad-copter stunt, while a fun idea, didn't seem to work very well in practice (the drones were almost invisible), and the movie it's intended to promote looks absolutely cringe-inducing (Justinnnnnn Beiberrrrrrr innnnnn spaaaaaace > )?

  • by game kid ( 805301 ) on Tuesday March 26, 2013 @12:27AM (#43278833) Homepage

    In related news, The Pirate Bay is now formally refusing to take further donations for its airborne drone server plan [slashdot.org]. A London spokesman for the website said, "We've got more than enough capacity and redundancy now!", as he laughed mischievously and looked up towards the quadrocopter-filled sky. Paramount did not take our calls for comment.

  • by Starfleet Command ( 936772 ) on Tuesday March 26, 2013 @12:31AM (#43278843)
    Figures...the emblem is backwards.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    Having just crawled out of my rock I didn't know there was a new star trek movie. Thats really cool...checks trailer... boo... crawls back into rock.

    Note to producers: Star Trek != Expendables and nobody is impressed by senseless CGI overload.

    The best startrek ever no contest was star trek iv ...the worst ever will be this film.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      The best startrek ever no contest was star trek iv

      No. Wrath of Khan is better.

      the worst ever will be this film.

      No. Insurrection can't be beat in horrible-ness.

      Using the words "no contest" in the context of the Star Trek movies is a bad idea.

      • *No. Insurrection can't be beat in horrible-ness.*

        Nemesis

      • by Anonymous Coward

        No. Wrath of Khan is better.

        Hated that movie.

        Using the words "no contest" in the context of the Star Trek movies is a bad idea.

        Pointing out that someones opinion is bad is about as pointless as pointing out that pointing out that someones opinion is bad is pointless.

  • It shoul;d have been shaped like the Enterprise and flown in the "forward" direction, not that would be cool.

  • by buybuydandavis ( 644487 ) on Tuesday March 26, 2013 @02:08AM (#43279081)

    But a little disturbing and creepy too. The swarm behavior they program into these things is amazing, and gives me Terminator flashbacks. It looks like intelligent behavior.

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday March 26, 2013 @02:52AM (#43279169)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • by lxs ( 131946 )

      At least it gave you an excuse to bitch about the state of the world so it isn't all bad.

    • Just what we need. More advertisement.

      Advertising in the sky is old, old news... planes have been skywriting and towing banners for decades.

    • Re:Just what we need (Score:4, Informative)

      by Type44Q ( 1233630 ) on Tuesday March 26, 2013 @08:26AM (#43280251)

      I am sure that when we will have effective robots, they will not be used to do anything you think they can do, but rather walk in the streets, tap your shoulder and when you look, they say "Hey mister, did you hear about this great new product

      This is why the time to create ad-blocking solutions is now, not later. For hardware, the bigger the caliber, the better... for software, I recommend fully-jacketed over hollowpoints (maximum penetration). :)

    • Why do you think Google is making self-driving cars?

      To get you to the store after you see that sky advertisement.

  • The Only interest I have in seeing this movie is when it comes out on one of the Satellite TV channels so I can DVR it and skip through it to watch the space scenes. The acting, script & sets are literally painful to me. Its like watching a two year old play with matchbox cars, flying them through the air like their jet fighters. Sure it may have moments of interest, but they are few and far between. For goodness sakes half of the sets were commercial/utility sites with a few computer consoles added

    • For goodness sakes half of the sets were commercial/utility sites with a few computer consoles added (brewery, electrical substation).

      Star Trek has a long history of using existing buildings as set pieces. This is the most ridiculous thing to complain about ever.

      • by cyborg_zx ( 893396 ) on Tuesday March 26, 2013 @08:22AM (#43280219)

        It's almost like they can't be bothered to just build the ships and go on location in space.

        • It's almost like they can't be bothered to just build the ships and go on location in space.

          Well, they tried... but China is hogging all the rare earth elements...

      • I'm having trouble remembering any former dirigible hangers dressed up as shuttle ports, gas-fired power plants dressed up as starfleet recruit embarkation facilities, or breweries dressed up as communications rooms and engineering sections from any of the previous series/movies. The most egregious example (that wasn't intentional of course) that I can think of from any of the previous shows would be some of the "alien world" scenes from "Time and Time Again" (VOY) that look like northern California. Whil

  • by QilessQi ( 2044624 ) on Tuesday March 26, 2013 @08:01AM (#43280091)

    obscures the skies, these will be our constellations. ...interrupted every five minutes or so when the drones re-form themselves into an ad for hemorrhoid cream.

    • obscures the skies,
      these will be our constellations. ...
      interrupted every five minutes or so when the drones re-form themselves into an ad for hemorrhoid cream.

      Burma shave.

  • At least normal billboards don't fall on my head when they malfunction. Cool swarm behavior though.
    • by Anonymous Coward

      At least normal billboards don't fall on my head when they malfunction. Cool swarm behavior though.

      Unless you're in an Alabama airport.

      http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/22/us/alabama-airport-display-collapse/index.html?iref=allsearch

      • At least normal billboards don't fall on my head when they malfunction. Cool swarm behavior though.

        Unless you're in an Alabama airport.

        http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/22/us/alabama-airport-display-collapse/index.html?iref=allsearch

        Here's hoping "... unless you're in Alabama" becomes the next big meme!

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