back to article Intel: A tiny video drone? Disguised as a bracelet? Great! Take half a million dollars!

Do you like drones? Do you like fashion? Do you want a drone that doubles as a fashion accessory? No? Well, too bad, because Intel has decided that the time is right for a quadcopter drone you bend and snap into an armband. The chip-baking goliath said it was awarding the $500,000 grand prize for its "Make it Wearable" …

  1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

    And they're using what to power the thing? Sarium Krellide? Because a LiPo battery would last about as long as it takes your average mammal to pee.

    And if you're hanging off the side of a cliff, I recon they'll be a right bitch to retrieve.

    1. VinceH

      "And if you're hanging off the side of a cliff, I recon they'll be a right bitch to retrieve."

      Quite. Apparently you should be able to catch it and place it back on your wrist - so when you're hanging off a cliff face, that's something which is going to stop you having three points of contact while you do it. Piss poor example.

      1. John Robson Silver badge

        Why - I catch it with my right hand (so I still have three points of contact) then put it on my right wrist (retaining those three points)

        I can't be stretched out, because then I'd have been unable to take it off my left wrist in the first place.

        I quite like the idea, although I'd suggest not trying it on anything other than a windless day

        1. VinceH

          "Why - I catch it with my right hand (so I still have three points of contact) then put it on my right wrist (retaining those three points)"

          You're absolutely right, of course - I think I had a brain fart when I said that.

    2. Simon Harris

      "LiPo battery"

      I read that as 'Lithium-Polonium battery' - an RTG powered drone - now that's an idea!

    3. stu 4

      flight time

      "And they're using what to power the thing? Sarium Krellide? Because a LiPo battery would last about as long as it takes your average mammal to pee."

      what makes you say that ?

      there are already similar sized FPV 'drones' out there.

      The Hubsan 107D for instance - I have one.

      You get about 6 minutes flight time.

      1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

        Re: flight time

        "You get about 6 minutes flight time."

        I rest my case.

    4. Lionel Baden

      Sorry

      Indoor events only, no farting / breathing allowed.

  2. Shovel

    OMG!! The Bend and Snap!!

  3. Mark 85
    Alert

    This is the winner?

    You gotta' be kidding me. I can just see 10,000 people at a sporting event suddenly launching these things... Now where's the helmet icon cause those things are going to come down somewhere.

    Now a wearable 3-D printer has potential. For what, I'm not sure but I'm curious and would like to see the application.

    1. Tapeador

      Re: This is the winner?

      Wearable 3d printer indeed, that made me laugh.

      I suppose one could strap cake-icing attachments onto one's rear end.

      1. Dave 126 Silver badge

        Re: This is the winner?

        >I can just see 10,000 people at a sporting event suddenly launching these things...

        Well, that's still preferable to people launching water bottles full of piss, no?

    2. Voland's right hand Silver badge

      Re: This is the winner?

      I can just see 10,000 people at a sporting event suddenly launching these things.

      So do I. Just colour them correctly and launch at a Balkan or Latin American national match. The war with the neighbours is pretty much guaranteed after that.

      1. psychonaut

        Re: This is the winner?

        wearable 3d printer.

        could be good for retro gags - have it sewn into the arse end of your pants. get it to print reams of paper like substance

        "oooh...ive got a fax coming through!"

        1. Vector

          Re: This is the winner?

          Yeah...someone should've proofed a bit better. According to Intel's website, second place went to a 3D printed prosthetic hand, not a wearable 3D printer.

  4. arctic_haze
    Unhappy

    This is too cool to be legal for long

    It's not immoral, fattening, addictive, expensive or impossible, so it must be illegal.

    1. Otto is a bear.

      Re: This is too cool to be legal for long

      Probably not, too economically valuable, but what you can do with it already is. You really can't use these to go spy on Mrs. Robinson's bedroom.

      You are also subject to lots of rules about where, when and how you manage the flight of these things, better be insured if you fly one into a car.

      In general they are covered by the same flight rules that cover model aircraft, which I believe are all about keeping it in sight, yours, not the camera.

      Drones are a bit different as they are far more aware of their surroundings, and are usually backed up by lots of other ground or airborne control tech. It'll be interesting to see what happens to Amazon if they go fully live with their drone delivery ideas.

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: This is too cool to be legal for long

        "You are also subject to lots of rules about where, when and how you manage the flight of these things, better be insured if you fly one into a car."

        Are you? I'm thinking of those tiny toy helicopters controlled by smartphone/bluetooth and the like with 5-10 minute flying times. Are they covered by the model aircraft regulations or are there exceptions for "toys"? This would appear to be of a similar size and weight and being flexible, about as dangerous. Or is the law strict, no exceptions?

  5. Mondo the Magnificent
    Coat

    Being a wrist device...

    I'd expect it to have an ARM processor.....

    On a serious note, a good idea but with all the "anti-drone" legislation proposals, you could be breaking the law in some counties...

  6. ukgnome
    Coat

    I would of thought....

    Whisper quiet take off, flight and landing would of been more impressive. AND it could circumvent drone law.

    ......TAXI!!!!!!!

  7. Nigel 11

    Not small enough?

    Is this the best current technology permits? We have a way to go to catch up with nature. When will we build an artificial dragonfly with the same hours-long endurance? Small powered wings are presumably much more complex than rotors, but also much more efficient.

    (They aren't around today, but the fossil record shows that the dragonfly design works at much larger sizes).

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: Not small enough?

      >(They aren't around today, but the fossil record shows that the dragonfly design works at much larger sizes).

      There was once a lot more available oxygen in our atmosphere... it was this allowed very large insects to breathe. They don't have lungs, and rely on little tubes to take in oxygen, so its a surface area / volume thing.

    2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: Not small enough?

      "Small powered wings are presumably much more complex than rotors"

      Ornithoptors. Oddly enough ,nothing man-carrying appears to be viable but there are many examples of small working models. ISTR seeing one not much larger than a large bumble bee. Not sure what it's duration was, not long I suspect.

      1. Nigel 11

        Re: Not small enough?

        Ornithopters ... Oddly enough ,nothing man-carrying appears to be viable

        And won't be. Birds max out at bustard-size, somewhat under 20kg. I'd guess that there are wing strength/stiffness issues that prevent anything heavier from getting off the ground if that involves flapping its wings. Similarly at a larger scale, fixed-wing aircraft max out when the wings can't be both long enough to generate sufficient lift and stiff enough to support the weight.

        Although large birds and insects both fly by powering their wings, the aerodynamics are very different. Insect-sized wings use the vortex generated at the tip of the wing to generate extra lift. This is the explanation of how a bumblebee manages to fly with such small wings. I suspect that it's also the most efficient form of flight for small creatures and devices (simply because if it weren't, nature would have evolved the alternative! )

  8. Graham Marsden
    Coat

    Not cool enough...

    ... Come on, it should look like an ordinary watch, then, when you press a button it should morph into a drone and link to your smart phone so you can pretend to be a Super Spy!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Not cool enough...

      It should also be invisible.

      1. Dave 126 Silver badge

        Re: Not cool enough...

        Or look like a mosquito, like the drone found in Iain M Banks' Consider Phlebas.

        1. Nigel 11

          Re: Not cool enough...

          Which may be rather less difficult than other Culture-level tech. Start by trying to make a dragonfly-drone. A micro fuel-cell is probably the biggest gap in our know-how. (DAK know if that's the path nature took - large flying insects first? )

          I've just realized, IMB didn't specify the normal size of mosquitoes in that part of his universe. Some of the ones that bit me in the USA, the drone might have been rather larger than I was imagining when I read the book!

  9. Jan 0 Silver badge

    Why don't Intel use a new name?

    Nixie is already taken!

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