A team of researchers based at Queen University’s Human Media Lab have unveiled something new; a system of flying ‘BitDrones’ that lets users explore information through interacting with flying ‘voxels’ – a three dimensional space.
Researcher Roel Vertegaal and his students see the BitDrone as the first step in creating virtual, levitating objects that can be interacted with; think of the 3D displays in Minority Report or something similar to Tony Stark’s office in Marvel’s Iron Man series.
Vertegaal stated that “BitDrones brings flying programmable matter closer to reality… It is a first step towards allowing people to interact with virtual 3D objects as real physical objects. We call this a Real Reality interface rather than a Virtual Reality interface… This is what distinguishes it from technologies such as Microsoft HoloLens and the Oculus Rift: you can actually touch these pixels, and see them without a headset.”
Presently, the system consists of dozens of drones sized between 5-10 centimetres, which in turn sees one of three types of drones perform a function: ‘PixelDrones’ are equipped with an LED to provide a display, ‘ShapeDrones’ have a 3D printed frame, and ‘DisplayDrones’ feature a high-resolution touchscreen and a forward facing video camera powered by an Android smartphone.
Vertegaal hopes that the system, once upscaled to include many more drones, will enable users to navigate digital systems, recreate 3D objects and displays, or even allow for telepresence communictations.
It’s just one step closer to Minecraft in the physical world. Watch the Bitdrones in action below:
