BitDrones: Towards Using 3D Nanocopter Displays as Interactive Self-Levitating Programmable Matter
summary
Prototype runs a Vicon-tracked 4 m^3 space with autonomous nano-quadcopters acting as levitating voxels, demonstrating three hardware types: PixelDrones with RGB LED/OLED, ShapeDrones carrying 3D-printed meshes, and DisplayDrones with 720p flexible touchscreens and a front camera. System supports touch, drag, throw, pinch resize and compound objects via per-drone PID control and XBee comms. It works for sparse 3D models but only a few drones fly reliably (≈10 cm separation due to downdraft); scaling needs miniaturization, magnetic bonds and improved control.
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chapters (9)
- 0:00Introduction to BitDrones
- 1:17Conceptual background
- 2:55Related work
- 5:06Design criteria
- 7:13System hardware
- 9:33Interaction techniques
- 11:34Application scenarios
- 13:29Limitations and future work
- 16:11Q&A session
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