Technologies once only available to multi-billion dollar defense contractors can now be built out of your kid's LEGO Mindstorm NXT and a cellphone strapped to a little radio control plane. Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of Wired magazine, takes a break from economics analysis to tell the tale of a new creative community of amateur UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) enthusiasts.
Individuals around the world are building relatively inexpensive aircraft (fixed wing and helicopters) that can fly autonomously. These UAV's take pictures or videos and transmit them to the ground, follow navigational waypoints for aerial mapping and scientific surveys, and more. In this Where 2.0 session, Anderson shares a personal story of how he and his son started with model planes and added cell phones and robotic kids toys to build amazing UAV's for less than $1,000.
By automatically taking GPS-tagged pictures, UAVs can populate Google Maps and other GIS services with ultra high resolution (3 cm or better) with timely aerial photography. Anderson demonstrates real excitement for the yet undiscovered applications of these new toys, now cheap enough for enthusiasts around the world to build and share with the help of the DIY Drones community.
Even the sky is no longer the limit.
Chris Anderson is Editor-in-Chief of Wired magazine, a position he took in 2001. Since then he has led the magazine to five National Magazine Award nominations, winning the prestigious top prize for General Excellence in 2005, a year in which he was also named Editor of the Year by Advertising Age magazine. He is the author of New York Times bestselling book The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More, which was published in 2006, and runs a blog on the subject at www.thelongtail.com. Previously, he was at The Economist, where he served as U.S. Business Editor, Asia Business Editor (based in Hong Kong); and Technology Editor. He started The Economist’s Internet coverage in 1994 and directed its initial web strategy.
Mr. Anderson’s media career began at the two premier science journals, Nature and Science, where he served in several editorial capacities. Prior to that he worked as a researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s meson physics facility and served as research assistant to the Chief Scientist of the Department of Transportation. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from George Washington University and studied Quantum Mechanics and Science Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley.
Anderson is an officer of the Young Presidents’ Association and a regular speaker and participant at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Resources
This free podcast is from our Where Conference series.
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