Drone racing is the coming thing. Putting pilots in control of a first-person view drone and sending it around a specially-built course can prove to be quite lucrative. At least for the winner of the recent World Drone Grand Prix, but there is also cash showing up in other areas.
Like this neon-lit course, the brainchild of Extreme Drone Circuit (XDC) who constructed the garish and highly-visible track for racing in darkness. The video above, recorded by pilot and YouTube user awkBOTS using a GoPro Hero4 Silver, gives us some idea of just how much precision is needed to send a small flying craft around one of these arenas. The high-speed geometric shapes catch the eye and wind up almost dizzying. We can just imagine seeing this in real-time through a first-person-view headset.
Don’t be too shocked if you’re greeted by Tron flashbacks while watching the high-speed laps.The backing audio is one of Daft Punk’s tracks from the Tron soundtrack. As for the laps themselves: Each one typically takes less than 40 seconds and needs to be sub-30 seconds to be wholly competitive. We may have to practise our piloting skills a whole lot more before taking to the pro circuit.
Source: Boing Boing