You're drinking morning coffee in 2019. These eggheads are in 2119 landing drones on their arms like robo-falconers

Have you ever wanted to land a drone on your arm as if the gizmo were some sort of metallic bird of prey? Well, if so, you’re in luck. Sort of. Enter the SwarmCloak... which may as well be called the SwarmDinnerPlate. Or the SwarmGardenGlassTopTable. It's a glass landing pad that can be worn on the arm or hands. Inside are a …

[Rich 11]

Hmm...

"In this case, the swarm, which is capable of tactile interaction with a user in VR, might represent the skeleton structure of the human body flying in the air. This may bring a new level of immersion of VR communication and teleconferencing."

On the one hand these sound like spurious excuses for a few engineers to play with new toys and pretend there's some practical use, but on the other hand I'd be happy to see almost anything that would liven up yet another ball-achingly dull teleconference.

[joeW]

Re: Hmm...

And on each hand, a tiny hunter-killer drone.

[iron]

Re: Hmm...

They would be very useful to destroy any presenter who reads out the bullet points on thier slides or has more than 5 slides. Admitedly that is 99% of presenters.

[ArrZarr]

Re: Hmm...

It looks like they saw Spider-Man: Far From Home and wanted a slice of the action when Mysterio happens for real to me.

[spold]

Re: Hmm...

Yes indeed.

>>> Have you ever wanted to land a drone on your arm as if the gizmo were some sort of metallic bird of prey?<<<

For extra reality it/they will fly off with you and eat you. Possibly feeding you to its baby capacitors.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Hmm...

At their age it's more likely that it's an excuse to go up to the roof and masturbate while having sex in the... cloud.

[Jimmy2Cows]

I want what these guys are smoking to come up with those use cases.

[Tascam Holiday]

At last!

How long have I waited for a strong impact on the human-swarm interaction? Now it's here.

[Francis Boyle]

Re: At last!

When I want to make a strong impact on the human-swarm interaction I use a roll-on but I understand others prefer sprays.

[0laf]

If you've read any of Neal Asher's book you might be seeing the begining of the evolution of the Shuriken

[Chris G]

It may be time for a new superhero/villain, Swarmguy, controlling and launching millions of nanodrones to save/dedtroy the World.

[0laf]

Wasn't that the plot of Big Hero6?

[John Jennings]

with those big glass plates on my hands, I have the perfect too to bat the little fekkers away.

Also - have you seen how long a microdrone runs for? Max fly time is about 5 minutes. They cant stay in the air if they get a little fluff on them- never mind poison darts or kinetics. Evil super villain technology its not.

They do nip a bit if you grab one out of the air from above, though!

[xeroks]

guess the next step is to include instant recharge facilities on those landing pads

[jake]

I believe the phrase many of us are reaching for is ...

... Ohhh-kayyy. Moving on ...

[Joe W]

Re: I believe the phrase many of us are reaching for is ...

For me it was "is it Friday already?"

[ThatOne]

Hm

After careful consideration I'll keep my 2019 morning coffee.

[Version 1.0]

Nobody's seeing a use for this?

I won't go into details, but I will not be surprised if they make an appearance in the next James Bond movie...

[Muscleguy]

Re: Nobody's seeing a use for this?

Ah Mr Bond you see we have strapped these things to the vulnerable parts of your body and we will soon release the buzzsaw swarm into the room. Try not to bleed too much, there's a good chap.

[Blackjack]

So...

How long until someone loses an arm?

[Pascal Monett]

Indeed.

"a strong impact on the human-swarm interaction" is something I am looking forward to see in a horror movie.

[Stevie]

Bah!

So scientists *can't* make a flying car or rocketboots with an altimeter in the heel, but they *can* waste hours making a virtual simulation of them?

What else is new?

Layabouts!

[Muscleguy]

Re: Bah!

The problem of course is not with the rocketboots but the fact that wearers insist on wearing their underpants outside of their pants and capes. We all know why capes are a bad thing when flying.

[GrahamRJ]

Re: Bah!

That's not a problem, that's a well thought-out solution. Big scary monsters, being flung into buildings and stuff like that are all likely to lead to, well, "unintended release". So you need a spare pair. But where to keep them? The average hero's costume doesn't have pockets, and they can't put the second pair on over the first pair otherwise they'll be a mess too. So the hero puts his spare pair on over the top of his suit (which is latex and hence waterproof). And as a bonus, if the suit rips at the back when he bends over, then he's got something covering it already. Job done.

[Happy Ranter]

Have you any idea how much sleep I have lost waiting for this?

>.< that much! The little tiny dot between > and <.

In fact, it's taken me more time to explain how much sleep I have lost than the actual amount of sleep I have lost waiting for someone to invent this

[Aussie Doc]

Oh.

I'm just jealous that somebody received funding for this sort of project.