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Eric Cheng

Avegant Glyph, up close

Cellist Philip Sheppard came by this morning to borrow my cello for a couple gigs in the SF Bay Area, and the Avegant Glyph happened to come up in conversation. This (of course) led to an impromptu photo shoot during which I wanted to get a picture of the display reflected in his eye. Philip was a great ...

Volume measurement from drone photogrammetry drops in price

(originally written for DroneCoalition and reproduced here on Skypixel.org) Yesterday, DroneDeploy announced Volume Measurements, an enhancement to their web-based photogrammetry service that enables rapid volume estimation using only a few clicks of the mouse. At the moment, drone-based volume estimation is commonly used for stockpile monitoring and is one of the few current use cases ...

El Niño Coastal Erosion Damage in Pacifica, California

On January 25, 2016, a state of emergency was declared in Pacifica, California, after king tides and storm surge pummeled the coastline.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOBQXuu_5Zw?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=250&h=141] Intel (in collaboration with Ars Electronica Futurelab) showed off 100 small drones swarming in concert to a performance of a bastardized version of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony (incorporating Intel’s jingle). The demonstration was pulled off in Flugplatz Ahrenlohe, Tornesch, Germany, last November, and the swarming stunt won a Guinness World Record for “Most Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) airborne ...

The DJI Phantom 3 Advanced is on sale at B&H Photo for $799 ($200 off), which is a ridiculously low price. The Amazon (Prime) price is $849 shipped, which is also a great deal. It’s likely that these sale prices are a result of the Phantom 3 4K being announced and a plan to phase ...

Lynne’s pipefish (Festucalex rufus): finally!

Yesterday, Richard Smith posted a picture of a pipefish in the Solomon Islands—the same species I photographed there in a tunicate / sponge bundle back in 2007. After I returned from the trip, I posted the picture on Wetpixel (thread) and asked for a species ID, but no ID could be found. Richard writes that the pipefish ...

I went on CNBC’s Closing Bell to talk about drone registration

Yesterday, I went on CNBC to talk about drone registration. I only had time to really share that drone registration exists and fly around in the studio a bit using a Blade Nano QX 3D (one of my favorite indoor toy drones), but the reality of drone registration is that it is a complicated issue. I am very much ...

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeUjbOIyJSQ?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=250&h=141] SkyGates, a virtual racing gates proof of concept for Eagle Tree’s Vector Flight Controller, looks like it could be a great flight training tool. (Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

360 spherical shots of Facebook HQ’s MPK20

Schrep had a rare lunch slot free this week, and we tried the sit-down family-style restaurant inside Facebook’s Building 20. Of course, I had to break out the 360 camera and get some shots. It’s viewable through Cardboard through the Roundme app (iOS).