Drone Week January 19: Surfing Drones

Welcome back to another edition of Drone Week here on BlogCampaigning! This series of posts It certainly seems like drones are everywhere these days, and one area where they're really making a mark is in surf videos.

A lot of waves are tough to shoot from the shore, and filming from the water often means that videographers aren't able to capture an entire ride. Drones are perfectly positioned to capture surfing, and the overhead angle often gives the action a dreamy look.

Check out a couple of examples of surfing drone videos below.

I like to fly from stugibson on Vimeo.  

If you want to capture some of this footage yourself, the AirDog might be a good bet. I'd say that that biggest problem is that it only has a 10-20 minute flight time. As some commenters have noted, you can't even paddle out in that time in some spots.

I feel like this is only the beginning of drones used for surfing footage, and I expect we'll see even better stuff in the future.

Check out past Drone Week posts on BlogCampaigning. 

Drone Week - May 9

I've been a bit busy lately, and haven't had time to do my weekly wrap-ups of drones in the news but here goes: Apparently some chaps at the Imperial College London have created a drone that works as a 3D printer, in that it sprays out a foam-like substance as it flies and can build things. It's supposed to mimic the way that swifts (a type of bird) build their nests, and the researchers say it can be used to repair areas inaccessible to humans, like wind-turbines.

Slashdot reports that in March, a passenger plane nearly collided with a civilian drone. As our skies fill with these little objects, this type of thing will become increasingly common.

And if that didn't terrify you, the news that DARPA is getting funding to create swarms of drones that are less reliant on their human operators and work more as a team with each other might.

And while it's not really a "drone", a company in Florida has created a little running robot called the "Outrunner" than reach speeds of 20mph. It seems to be an early version, so it will be interesting to see what else they can do with it and if it will have any uses.,

http://io9.com/darpa-wants-to-teach-military-drones-the-meaning-of-tea-1572126878