Watch how Intel's depth cameras let you play 'drone ping pong'

Watch how Intel's depth cameras let you play 'drone ping pong'


It's all good and fun when you get to fly a drone, but there are times when you wish it could fly around by itself without crashing into things. As we found out at Intel's CES keynote just now, one solution to this is to equip the machine with depth cameras; and in Ascending Technologies' case, it went with six of Intel's RealSense depth cameras for its AscTec Firefly. The result is a drone that pushes itself away when people approach it, which allowed the demonstrators to humor the audience with a game of "drone ping pong": one player would walk up to the Firefly to pass it to another player. We also watched another Firefly clear an obstacle course autonomously, but trust us, the first demo is more entertaining (but maybe creepy for some). See for yourself after the break.