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."
Just wondering... (Score:2)
If the Doctor had to intervene before they actually created the whole Enterprise, and if Daleks were at the root of it?
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I'm argentine, and I care about the Doctor. a HUGE % of argentines f****ing hate the falkinas islands... but love lots of their art.
Don't hate them because their beautiful.
Re:Just wondering... (Score:5, Interesting)
No one cares about Dr. Who
No offence, but go fuck yourself with a cricket bat.
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No one cares about cricket bats.
Now I have images in my brain of roving gangs of crickets carrying bats, and itching for a fight!
(Yes, I know what cricket is.)
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I thought it was a nuclear air craft carrier. Or the prototype shuttle.
Did anyone actually witness these flying lights? (Score:2)
Cause, they look barely visible at 1080p, with or without the background lights.
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Cause, they look barely visible at 1080p, with or without the background lights.
I blame the smog.
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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.
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I haven't upgraded my CGA Eyes yet.
320x200 Black, White, Cyan, and Magenta is good enough for me, If I feel ambitious, I can switch to Black, Yellow, Green and and Red.
Re:Did anyone actually witness these flying lights (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
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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
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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
Oblig (Score:1)
Fascinating.
Considering it's a for a J.J. Abrams Movie ... (Score:5, Funny)
English Motherfucker, Do You Speak It ? (Score:5, Informative)
provided the aircrafts.
Plural of "aircraft" is -- "aircraft".
Re:English Motherfucker, Do You Speak It ? (Score:5, Informative)
Quadrocopter maker Ascending Technologies GmbH from Munich (Germany) provided the aircraft.
Some moron thought he'd "correct" it.
Re:English Motherfucker, Do You Speak It ? (Score:5, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
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>3 times replying to himself
>obvious nerd rage
geeks will be geeks...
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Yeah that was my first thought too.
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LED Lights? (Score:5, Funny)
Don't try this in Boston
Re:LED Lights? (Score:4, Insightful)
It would be illegal in the US anyway thanks to the FAA.
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That and an accidental DMCA takedown.
Re:LED Lights? (Score:5, Funny)
It would be illegal in the US anyway thanks to the FAA.
It wouldn't be illegal if it were for national security or for the children.
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[[Citation Needed]]
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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.
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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. :-)
Mein Gott! (Score:1)
Who edits this stuff?? (the video, not the submission)
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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 > )?
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In SF, they would have been fined by the FAA.
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They probably tried and the FAA probably told them to fuck off [faa.gov].
It's impossible to get a commercial UAS license for urban areas currently. Not to mention the airframe needs to be certified too.
Re:Why London? (Score:4, Informative)
The state in the UK is if the unmanned aerial system weighs less than 20kg (basically, like most RC models) the regulation is correspondingly light and commercial operation is allowed without the need for certified systems or to put a G-xxxx registration on the aircraft. However, a permit is still required to operate and the operator must have a qualification to fly the aircraft (effectively a "drone pilot license") if it is to be flown in a populated area.
Over 20kg and the UAS needs airworthiness approval.
http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP722.pdf [caa.co.uk]
Drone servers (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Fuckin JJ Abrams (Score:5, Funny)
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Let's start with Red Matter....
Re:Fuckin JJ Abrams (Score:5, Funny)
Not from the other side :)
Re:Fuckin JJ Abrams (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Fuckin JJ Abrams (Score:4, Funny)
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Can't be Abrams....no lens flares apparent.
New star trek?!? (Score:1)
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.
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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.
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*No. Insurrection can't be beat in horrible-ness.*
Nemesis
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The Motion Picture
I win.
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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.
Boring! (Score:1)
It shoul;d have been shaped like the Enterprise and flown in the "forward" direction, not that would be cool.
Very cool (Score:3)
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.
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Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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At least it gave you an excuse to bitch about the state of the world so it isn't all bad.
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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)
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). :)
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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..... (Score:2)
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
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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.
Re:The Only Interest..... (Score:5, Funny)
It's almost like they can't be bothered to just build the ships and go on location in space.
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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...
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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
In the future, when a permanent smog (Score:5, Funny)
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.
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or Ass-teroid cream??
(sorry)
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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... (Score:2)
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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
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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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Re:But do the drones support host files? (Score:4, Insightful)
Slashdot needs to do something about this. How many posts are that long and have 20 links in them? Shouldn't be that hard to filter such posts.
I flagged the post. I encourage others to do the same.
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It's not like it's hard to identify and ignore if you want.
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Re:But do the drones support host files? (Score:5, Informative)
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If you dont want to tolerate it, set your threshold to hide -1 comments. Thats the whole point of comment moderation thresholds.
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Then deal. Or, make your own news aggregation website.
Jesus, the sense of entitlement some people have...