from Hacker News

Drones That Anybody Can Pilot with a Phone

by sk2code on 1/15/15, 2:32 PM with 10 comments

• by Someone1234 on 1/15/15, 4:09 PM

  Drones that came with an iOS/Android app have been available for around two years. So the only USP here is that ex-Google employees made another one "me too!" Good for them, but nothing revolutionary going on here.

• by spiritplumber on 1/15/15, 4:08 PM

  We've been doing this since 2010 at www.robots-everywhere.com although it has to be an android phone. The software and even the schematics have been creative commons'd since 2012, too (they're on the wiki). We demoed at Google I/O 2010.

  Wired has been notified of this over the years and consistently failed to report it.

• by fit2rule on 1/15/15, 5:07 PM

  The use of phones to control devices like this is kind of old news .. what I'd be interested in more is a kit you can use that will turn your average iPhone into a flying drone itself .. bolt on some wings/rotors, charge up the batteries, and let it loose. Seems to me that is an accessory whose time has come .. perhaps its out there on the horizon somewhere already, who knows?

  EDIT: It IS! This is what I want in the iPhone/drone department, next:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhv7qmo63D4

  (EDIT2: D'oh, looks like its CGI .. still, a man can dream..)