executive editor of make magazine Mike
sandy see everybody I'll talk slowly at
the start for those of you guys are just
starting to come in on the side and for
those of you guys who stayed past
Massimo's tok tok thank you very much
that's really that's really cool Massimo
obviously is a big hero to everyone but
especially to myself I even named my son
Massimo so it's an honor for me to get
to come on stage after him and and I was
expecting that the place would be empty
cuz you know he was going to clear the
room after he's done you nothing else to
see but okay you guys want to hear about
about drones so um while we wait for
these guys to come in I'd love to hear
some good jokes who's got a good joke
any good jokes anyone heard a good joke
today or yesterday or this last week you
guys look like you're telling some funny
jokes to each other any jokes all right
then probably keep it to yourself how
many of you guys own quadcopters
autonomous aircraft I see full three how
many guys are looking to get one you
think this is pretty cool curious stuff
okay a few more hands good
so again to a helicopters how about toy
helicopters we got to toy helicopter
owners say that again I've got that same
pile of drone parts yeah I don't know I
just just I've got good intentions I've
got big intentions but I don't always
get to them get to actualize them and
realize them and see them no I don't
know if I would call it well I don't say
that loud because yes it is yeah now the
parent people are doing some really cool
stuff and that's great a great first
iteration of something but that new
bebop drone have you seen this that
parrots putting out it's a little it's
not the jumping one which they've made
that little the hand sized palm they
call it like the crawling spider or
something it has wheels on it it'll go
and you could fly it up and it press it
against the ceiling and then roll it
along back and forth but then they came
out middle this summer with a new a new
drone platform called the bebop drone
and it's sort of their response to the
DJI phantom which is a obviously very
successful very flyable easy to fly
platform so it's small its compact and
it's got a really high definition camera
built into the body and the interesting
thing about that one is that the camera
itself rather than having a gimbal that
is mechanical and we'll adjust
electronically this one has a digital
gimbal so imagine you've got a very high
very very large sensor that's getting a
very wide range of field and then it is
through software its cropping in and as
the drone is flying around it it's
digitally keeping that field of view
stabilized inside through software so
it's it drastically reduces the weight
of the drone but it's not released yet
so I'm still waiting to get one in the
office to play with all right it's a lot
more crowded all of a sudden this is
great
thanks everybody for coming to see the
presentation and I'm going to power
through this one because we're trying to
catch up on time crunches but I've got
some fun stuff for us to look at so this
is doing good with drones and UAVs and
I'm Mike's NAC executive editor of make
magazine make magazine as Sabrina was
saying to some of you guys who were here
we're the ones who we produce Maker
Faire and for those of you guys who are
Maker Faire fans I encourage you all to
subscribe to make magazine it's a real
great publication so uh one of the
things make magazine has tracked for a
long time is the concept of autonomous
aircraft this through communities like
the DIY drones groups chris anderson and
which turned into a business 3d robotics
but a lot of the stuff that's become
capable because of advancements in
microcontrollers and sensors become
smaller more powerful up and able to do
things like autonomous flight so one of
the things i want to do as we jump into
this panel is let's talk about what is
drone there's a lot of conversation
there's been a lot of conversation for a
long time about drones and one of the
things that the i personally try to do
through through through make and through
the making and maker community is to
look at drones from our perspective so
i'm not talking about Predator drones
and i'm not talking about things that
are happening halfway across the world
I'm talking about I'm talking about
aerial platforms I'm talking about
things that are community user friendly
aerial platforms like quadcopters I'm
talking about things like you have a
fixed-wing aircraft that are largely
autonomous or at least have autonomous
capabilities platforms that have the
ability to have multiple functions
onboard sensors and different types of
cameras able to carry payloads that are
surprising with stability this is one of
the things that I look at to
differentiate dro
from a model aircraft from toy toy
planes or RC helicopters are RC planes
which have been around for decades and
they're incredible the the drone UAV
concept that we look at is it something
that is is a really relatively new idea
because it's it's cheap it's super easy
to fly it's super scapel and you can use
this to do other things it's now not a
product it's a tool and with that I want
to jump into what what I'm talking about
here with with doing good with drones is
this talk these platforms are now
capable of being used for a variety of
variety of applications of some of the
most surprising into most exciting
applications are the people who are
using them for a really beneficial
practical purposes and one of the ones
that that really relatively recent just
over the summer this is a situation that
happened in Fitchburg Wisconsin there
was a lost hiker his name was Guillermo
de venecia he was he went missing he was
out for a hike and he was he was missing
he was missing for three days they had
search teams that helicopters at dogs
hundreds of volunteers searching for
this this 82 year old lost hiker they're
sending the news out across all channels
cross you know the radio television etc
and a there was a couple that was
vacationing in the area gentleman by the
name of Tim lash skier snowboarder
extreme sports kind of guy he decided
you know I'm gonna help i'm on vacation
and I've got it I've got my quadcopter
in the trunk of my car so maybe I can
maybe I can use this I can go and I can
help out so he set up his rig went to
one of the areas where they thought
maybe this is a zone where where the de
venecia guillermo had been and and the
scary thing is that this is this is the
kind of the tough part about some of the
stuff is he assumed I'm going to go up
and I'm going to try to find what might
be a body ah so he gets us his quad
copter in the air and he starts
crisscrossing over this field 200-acre
field and flying this this this rig
around and looks and 20 minutes in and
this is after three days of searchers
dogs helicopters etc twenty minutes and
he finds the guy he finds this guy just
sort of wandering around and of course
you know they they run over and they
they they go and they get him and and
the guy didn't even realize that he was
lost I mean he was so disoriented at
this point but he was he was safe and he
was great and you know this is a unity
that while he's doing this flying one of
the things that I think's really cool is
that he's doing this he's using his fpv
rig which for those of you guys who
don't know is the first person video
you've got a headset or a screen and
you're watching through the camera of
the quadcopter or a plane depending on
what type of regular flying but yeah
it's like your remember the movie
Beastmaster where he goes into the hawk
and you can see that as if so it's like
that he says as cool as that and and so
he saves this guy and of course what
does he do he puts it on Instagram and
there's there's there's Tim there's this
girl friend there's uh the girlfriend's
dad and then in the middle here with
this gatorade bottle rehydrating there's
guillermo de venecia i got 170 two
lights which is pretty good but i think
we think he should have a lot more than
that because it's just a great story but
here's the crazy sing because this was
this summer it's not the first time this
has happened last year may 2013
saint-denis Saskatchewan Royal Canadian
Mounted Police they found an accident
victim so this could where st. Denis SAS
catch one has anyone heard of this weird
how do you know that st. Denis is it's
right there it's really far away from
everything it's considerably further
north than the top of New Brunswick
which is a lot further north in the top
of Maine which is really far off any of
guys have driven to the tip of Maine
it's really far from here st. Denis
Saskatchewan is population 30 and so the
there's a an accident gets reported God
20 minutes after midnight in the middle
of May and it was of a court was five
miles outside of st. Denis so even
more remote area car rolled the police
the emergency services they're called
and of course that you know they sent
helicopters they sent the emergency
services the first group that gets there
the firefighters they start searching
around they go 200 yards out they
searched a radius of 200 yards and and
they don't find the guy there's a
missing person apparently forward to
jumping ahead of this part but there's a
there's the driver of this car is
missing apparently he'd wandered off
they could see that he had wandered
somewhere so they go and they start
searching for the driver of this car
they don't they don't see him they send
a helicopter up helicopter us
searchlights which if any of you guys
have ever seen the helicopter with a
searchlight once that helicopter shows
up and there's a car chase or a burglary
and the helicopter gets you that's it
you're caught you can never get it you
can never escape so the helicopter can't
find this guy and so the authorities
decide they're going to call one of the
forensic officers and he has dragon
flyer x 4 22 to 28 $10,000 quadcopter
which is you know somewhat expensive for
you know what we would be flying but
it's you know these are professional
rigs that they're there they can be
outfitted with a number of different
components he's got his out flit fitted
with a FLIR infrared camera and those is
what you would use to detect heat if you
want to do predator vision viewing of
you're going to maybe you use it for
hvac applications so forth so he gets
his rig up in the air now this is
probably bought three in the morning and
here's the fun part they got video of it
so let's watch this video there's
there's no audio when they're going to
step through some of the stuff that that
I just explained so again helicopters
come out they don't find anything they
send the X floor up they've got the rig
there while bread before he sent up the
rig they had they received a phone call
from the driver and he said I'm
somewhere I don't know where I don't
know who I am I I have a jacket I don't
I lost my jacket I lost my shoes so they
found the signal they look
where the signal came from they moved
two miles south of where the accident
happened so this guy obviously has
wandered quite away and they send this
up and they find the heat signature of
the driver and then you can see here in
the middle of the screen those are the
two firefighters that then went and they
start walking over because they've
pinpointed where he is he is curled up
at the base of a tree laying in the snow
it's three in the morning it's freezing
temperatures and they obviously they
were able to rescue him they got him
back he had hypothermia but had they had
to wait till the morning till sunrise
where they could actually get out and
they could get that next two miles south
this guy would have made it and that's
one of the quotes that that the Canadian
Mounted Police actually they they
broadcast this to the media which i
think is really interesting as well the
difference of how the embracement of
this technology and what a great thing
this is so those those two examples
right there fascinating to me there's a
group in Texas called Equusearch they
are also doing drone drone you drone
powered well let me restate that they
started as a as a team of independent
team that goes and looks for missing
persons using horses the that's the
equipartition tlie or since 2007 adopted
drones as well and now they're trying to
regain the right to use drones because
of faa battles and obviously there's a
lot of legislation that has to get
determined drone wise for commercial or
you know just being practical usage but
i will say that last week the sep tember
10th the faa did grant them permission
to use a drone for missing person search
so that at least there's some positive
movement in that sense and so let's move
from their wildlife habitats this is
another area that's really interesting
drone wise we've got a lot of a lot of
areas wildlife why's that are large
their remote there
hard to watch hard to monitor and on
foot if you go to rain forests if you go
to mountainous zones it's it's next to
impossible on foot or horseback or even
a motorcycle to get to a lot of these
areas but one of the great things with
an autonomous aircraft is that you can
you can send you know through the air
this vehicle that can it can observe and
and watch everything so there's a number
of organizations that are starting to
pop up that are actually using these
these types of craft to to observe and
watch and monitor the wildlife areas in
in their region so this this photo here
this is a group in Belize and the Belize
got a credible reef incredible water
area but all of its subject to possibly
it's easily subjected to illegal fishing
and obviously you don't want to do a lot
of illegal fishing or any type of
illegal fishing you want to damage your
most precious resource and in Belize
that's one of the most beautiful things
so this group called drone conservation
dot org let me or dizzy let me read this
again if I got use a drone conservation
drone conservation org they're working
with the Belize government to build up a
network of of aircraft that can
autonomously fly their way through the
over the waterways and and and monitor
and track any any instances of illegal
fishing and they're also working with in
the orangutan habitat world to to look
for any disruptions in the within
orangutang habitats and there's a great
video that I'll show you a snippet of
let's see if there's audio with this oh
I don't think you guys can hear that can
yell so I'll narrate what's happening
here this is a natural National
Geographic produce video no thanks this
down a little bit yeah pause it so we
can we can jump in min and miss anything
crucial and you guys here that's no good
great basically the research it just has
to throw the plane in the air and off it
will go flying about its mission
so what they're doing is they're setting
they're setting never put half ways go
have a beer and then yeah 12 feet that's
my favorite part of it the interviewers
asking do you ever set this up in the
air and then go and have a beer fine
because this thing flies itself back and
forth it's taking photos of these areas
where they know that there's a rang a
tang Abbott actions and and then those
photos can be stitched together and make
a mosaic off the whole area east but
this looks quite good yes we can use
them in and you can see we're in
business so these systems can help to
find out where are any things are and
that's something that's very useful for
lots of conservation workers because
they would like to see what changes are
in landings for instance the goal is to
try to see how this technology can be
used to help people with the
conservation projects
one of the things we would like this
technology to to go to his to system to
have a longer range so they can fly
farther away so we can explore certain
areas that haven't been explored yet
so this is great this is a cheap light
weight quickly deployable platform that
can get you into locations that are hard
to get to or expensive to get to our
dangerous to get to and you can you can
use this to track things that are that
are precious and an important and do it
do it freely and not freely but to do it
cheaply and easily and in the autonomous
aspect of it so important because by
setting this up so you can you know you
can create these waypoints so you can
track and run any type of any type of
pathway that you want from crisscrosses
two radiuses to you draw any type of
shape and these drones will fly
themselves through these paths works
you're you're able to get to places that
it would be really hard to get to
otherwise one of the things that's also
really interesting atmakur con a couple
days ago we had the kickoff event for
maker faire which is our sort of maker
to make her convention the CEO of Intel
still in this stage and he showed us
some new technology that they were
launching which is 3d scanning 3d
scanning cameras that are miniscule tiny
embed them in the bezel of your tablets
he said we're putting these into drones
because what we can do with that is we
can start creating vision for drones
which creates intelligence so of
obstacle avoidance you can track your
way navigate your way through obstacles
around trees the things that people do
still get nervous about you know you've
we've all seen the video of the guy in
Brooklyn who banged his little DJI
phantom quadcopter against a bunch of
skyscrapers before it fell on the ground
then he got arrested but um those
developments they're happening and
they're happening fast and it's very
exciting because it's going to help take
this platform to new places so disaster
relief and mapping this is another area
along the lines of what they're doing
with the habitat wildlife mapping but
this is used looking more specifically
disaster relief in the sin
of you've got something like Fukushima
you've got something like the the
typhoon in the Philippines which I'll
show you something about in a moment
places where again it's it's it's hard
it's expensive it's very dangerous to go
and and observe and map and figure out
what is happening here as there are
there survivors that we need to be
searching for what's the best way in
what's the best way out so this is
actually there's this grab this these
are a number of videos online right now
i just i just opened up a google video
search and i just grabbed the headlines
of the videos that are popping up
because this is turning into a real
thing here with within the disaster
mapping aspect if there's quite a bit
and one of the ones that I think's
really surprisingly gorgeous even though
it's a little bit creepy Chernobyl 1986
world's worst meltdown nuclear plant a
disaster and the UM you can now get into
the into into the chernobyl area of the
what do they call it here at the
exclusion zone and you can do take tours
quick tours and in and out and this is
one photographer who is a scientist at
the weather channel but also an amateur
pilot he's gone there numerous times and
he's flown his quadcopter around to get
aerial photos these are perspectives
that are not easy to get if not
impossible to get of this incredible
place but a scary place he's actually
spent 31 days in the exclusion zone over
in various trips which is to me a little
bit freakish but he loves it and you
know I think these photos are incredible
so typhoon haiyan which was Maeve 2013
if i'm not mistaken although i thought
was februari so I'm gonna double-check
this date one of the most devastating
typhoons in in history it it just
ransacked
half of of the Philippines but
afterwards this video was shot and I
think this is another really interesting
and Ally I don't want to say beautiful
because it's not because it's terrifying
but the the looking at this and thinking
this is something you couldn't walk into
this house because it's there's so much
debris it would be so dangerous to go in
there but someone's able to fly in there
and to scan and and and to observe and
you're getting you know through if
you're using an fpv set up your getting
instantaneous feedback of what's
happening inside that area and that's
powerful and that's good and that's in
that part I think is just incredible as
this goes on you'll see he backs out
here and and you'll get to see the
extent mean this is this was a really
significant typhoon it was really
damaging in fact I'm going to just jump
ahead in the video so you can see us
yeah there we go that's those are the
shots where do you just go like holy cow
this whole place just got destroyed but
we've got technology and we're able that
we're starting to find new ways to use
that can help us get in there and do
good things and I think that's really
great so I wanted to leave the
discussion with the happy of component
and that's the the idea that also one of
the good things that's happening is
filmmaking we've seen some great shots
angles that no one's ever seen before
videos no one's seen before perspectives
no one's seen before and people are
using that in the filmmaking community
as well and to get to get footage that
it's just just incredible because
they're things that no one's ever ever
thought that we could do and this is one
of my favorites of those and I'm going
to play this and then i'm going to say
thank you oh wait no first i'm gonna
play it then i'm going to say thank you
but this is one of my favorite videos
all time
how many guys have been to Santa Monica
California ok so you've seen this
that's it right there
how great is that you could never do
that so anyways I'm Mike's and easy
executive editor for Make Magazine I
appreciate you guys coming to watch the
talk hope that you guys get excited
about this stuff the same way that I do
and and I also hope you guys really
enjoy Maker Faire because it's a it's a
great show thank you very much