Flying robot makes 3D map of building's interior

[Video Link]The video is from 2010, but the flying robot that stars in it makes the same kind of 3D map of a building's interior that the drones in Prometheus make.

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

MORE: DRONES • maps • robots

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eviladrian

But the guy running it still manages to get lost within 15 minutes!
- bcsizemo
  
  But, but…
  
  I thought I had a reasonable explanation but it kind of feel apart when you realize they communicate with the captain in the middle of the storm.
  
  But boy, those were some nifty special effects.
- Sigmund_Jung
  
  That’s a movie you hate a little bit more every day. Damn you Lindelof (and Scott for being a pussy)
JPW

Wouldn’t a blimp be somewhat more, um, discreet?
GawdDamb

Interesting. I can’t think of a practical purpose for it off the top of my head. It’s not stealthy. Usually you can get layouts of buildings from city planning ect. ect. Maybe if you had to map an underground tunnel system? hm
- ackpht
  
  Lots of applications, particularly if the device can be further miniaturized and quieted in the future, which is a pretty good bet. Two big trends in military tech development are tools for urban warfare and precision-guided (as in: under 1 meter targeting error) weapons that enable the use of the smaller warheads that loitering UAVs can carry. Locate the specific room that the baddies are in, and if there’s an exterior window, that’s where you put the laser designator. If there are no windows, just knowing the specific XYZ coordinates will assist in selecting and targeting the appropriate weapon.
  
  A sufficiently small device, upon encountering a closed door, can just park unobserved and wait for it to open. Accumulating a map of the building interior/contents over time, it can then fly to a relay point to offload the data.
  
  Even if you’re not bird-dogging for a Reaper, I can see these being very useful for law enforcement and emergency response.
- cfuse
  
  3D data for Google maps to building level including interiors for the entire world.
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Mick-Maus/100003601989100 Mick Maus
  
  As the two commenters under you have noted, the main uses are google continuing it’s massive spy campaign and obvious military applications. So, I ask again, ‘Is there a practical [not-bad-for-humans] application for this?’
SoItBegins

Looks like tomorrow’s hottest piece of security tech is going to be the butterfly net.
TimmoWarner

Speak up!
http://lemoutan.blogspot.com/ Lemoutan

Now we await the movie where the plot device for the escapade is fooling the mapping drone with a simulated alternate environment.
David Carroll

I’m ashamed to say my first thought was: This would be perfect for shooting LipDub videos. ;(