In a robot lab at TEDGlobal, Raffaello D’Andrea demos his flying quadcopters: robots that think like athletes, solving physical problems with algorithms that help them learn. In a series of nifty demos, D’Andrea show drones that play catch, balance and make decisions together — and watch out for an I-want-this-now demo of Kinect-controlled quads.  I find the implications of this for robotics technology astounding.  How soon can I have my own Phantom Drone that works like these babies?  Probably sooner than we may think.

I want to hookup my camera, start the recorder, and just tell the Phantom Drone to head on out and follow my voice commands.  Technology is very close I am told to this point already, it just needs to be combined in the right order to execute this way.  In other words, a new UI is what is probably required.  One that incorporates the concept of real time visual with simultaneous voice control.  As with all areas of technology, progress is being rapidly made in these miniaturized flying camera platforms.  What’s next, “The Intelligent Flying Camera?”