Intel's Shooting Star is the first drone designed to replace fireworks

A couple of days back, Intel unveiled a tiny new drone, the Shooting Star, designed specifically for entertainment light shows. And Intel's drone is already making headlines by setting a new Guinness World Record.

"With this drone, we will be able to demonstrate that drone light shows can redefine entertainment and create amazing new experiences in the night sky," Anil Nanduri, Intel's VP of New Technology Group, wrote in a blog post.

An individual pilot flew 500 Shooting Star drones simultaneously in early October, breaking the Guinness Book of World Records for most drones operated at once by a single pilot. Simultaneously. it beat a previous record of 100 set by itself in 2015. The flight took place in a small town outside of Munich, Germany, where Intel received a waiver from local regulators to perform the record-breaking flight.

Each drone is packed with full-color-range LED lights. The drones fly with the help of Intel's automation software, which allows artists to design aerial animations with hundreds of drones. It's the type of coordination that would typically take weeks or months, but Intel says its system can design a complex light show in days.

If you may remember last month, Intel unveiled the Intel Falcon 8+ System at the 2016 INTERGEO drone conference in Hamburg, Germany. The Falcon 8+ is the company's first commercial multirotor drone for the United States market.

Intel is better known in the drone industry for its collision avoidance camera technology, Real Sense, which is used in its industrial-grade Falcon 8 drone, as well as Yuneec's Typhoon H drone. The system allows drones to weave between obstacles without being piloted, but the new Shooting Star drones aren't equipped with Real Sense. Instead, the drones are completely controlled by the master computer and operator on the ground. The drones don't communicate with each other either, so they're not a swarm, but are rather radio controlled.

Earlier this week, Intel also disclosed the acquisition of Germany-based drone specialists MAVinci GmbH to expand its capabilities in the growing drone industry. The tech multinational believe drones are an important computing platform for the future.

"I see a future where fireworks and all of their risks of smoke, dirt are a thing of the past, and they're replaced by shows that have unlimited creativity and potential - and powered by drones," Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said at this year's CES.

Source: Intel Newsroom

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Xiaomi announces Mi Drone with 1080p and 4K recording; starts from just $380

After a brief tease campaign, Xiaomi unveiled its newest product and sent it up in the sky. It's even cheaper than reported.

Xiaomi is launching something tomorrow that's super fly. 😎 pic.twitter.com/4DszGVdZWn

— Hugo Barra (@hbarra) May 24, 2016

One of China's most popular consumer electronics brands, Xiaomi announced its latest product, a drone priced at 2999 yuan ($456) for a model with a 4k camera, and 2499 yuan ($380) for a version with a 1080p camera. Xiaomi says that a pre-orders will begin for the 1080p version today, while a beta version for the 4k version will be given out to select users.

Like other Xiaomi products, the device is priced astonishingly low compared to competitor models. Chinese manufacturer DJI's Phantom 3 drone, for example, sells for $800. The drone isn't actually made by Xiaomi, but it is manufactured by a company that Xiaomi invested in called Flymi.

The drone is said to have a compact lightweight body and it is made of carbon fibre. The on-board camera is a 12MP Sony BSI sensor with 6P lenses along with three-axis image stabilization and support for RAW image capture.

Xiaomi said that the Mi Drone can fly for 27 minutes per session thanks to a 5,100 mAh battery and to a range of 3km. That’s about on par with DJI's drones, which fly for 23-28 minutes depending on the model. It also includes a 360-degree camera that can shoot 1080p/4K video, and handheld remote which has the option of attaching a smartphone for a live-feed view from the drone. The pieces seem to be modular, which means replacing them and the battery is possible.

There’s a bevy of security and usability features, including GPS and visual-based guidance, several autopilot modes, auto-return home when the battery is low or when outside of range, location tracking for easy retrieval, and no-fly-zone avoidance.

Xiaomi has announced that the 1080p model will be "crowdfunded" inside the company's Mi Home app from 26 May 2016, while the 4K drone will be made available for early testing via an open beta program at the end of July. There's no word on when (or whether) it will be sold outside of China.

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