Parrot’s AR.Drone helicopter brings military-style amusement to the iPhone

January 05th, 2010 | Category: Gadget Corner

certain, the iPhone does a commendable job with heavy-duty 3D acceleration for intense virtual reality gaming, but funk that noise — these guys want to bring you the real thing. Parrot — better known for its Bluetooth accessories — has introduced the AR.Drone, a WiFi-enabled remote control helicopter that takes its commands from the iPhone or iPod touch of your choice. The wacky toy has a pair of on-board cameras, one to help steady itself and the other to beam a live bird’s-eye view (almost literally, whether you pretend for a moment that that is in fact a bird) from the captain’s seat onto your phone’s screen. Parrot’s mainly pushing the hardware here — it’s offering up a host of open source goodies to help developers learn about the product and figure out how to turn it into a must-have toy with replay

value, and they’ll have plenty of instance to do so since it won’t be available to consumers until “sometime in 2010.” Follow the break for a video of the AR.Drone mercilessly hunting down and destroying all who dare oppose it.

Gallery: Parrot’s AR.Drone helicopter brings military-style amusement to the iPhone