Drones
Whilst away some of my adventures were recorded
by a friend who had a drone. This is
certainly a wonderful toy to play with.
He had the Phantom 4 Plus which has a range of about 7km. The top of the range ones are not cheap. Jessops sell them for £1800! The quality of the filming and stills that
can be captured by them are simply superb.
Learning to fly one is a very good option and could save a lot of damage
in the long run. There are courses in
Bristol. There are even Quadcopter
Holidays for the real drone geeks out there.
Before you get too carried away with a
drone, it is worth noting that current rules state that you cannot fly one
within 150 m of a built up area, within 50 m of a person, vessel or
vehicle. You must fly it where you can
see it. Not above 120m in height or 500
m horizontally. There is a whole
minefield of legislation being considered after near misses with aircraft,
bridges and people as well as worries over privacy. They are also very noisy.
Drones are amazing playthings and allow you
to see areas you know well from a totally new perspective.
Virtual
Reality Goggles
It is amazing how cheap these are nowadays! I tried one last month which used a phone as
the screen and it was £45 for the experience.
It used an app and allowed me to ride on a rollercoaster, and look up,
down and from side to side.
I felt very motion sick almost
immediately! Roller coasters are really
not my thing, but it was very realistic.
I wondered if I could train myself to like them, or not to feel sick by
using one regularly. Comments would be
most welcome on this subject!
Virtual reality goggles can also be
tethered to a game like Playstation, so that you are totally immersed in the
experience. These are much more
expensive- anywhere from £500-£1000, and include the sound as well. I can’t help wondering how you avoid bumping
into walls, but I expect you use them whilst seated.
Home
Robots
This is much more appealing to me. I could definitely get excited about a robot hoover and have a few friends who
use them. Homevac Electrics on North
View sell them and demonstrated one for me.
They work on a programme and get on with the job and go back to their
base station to recharge. Not sure what
our dogs would make of it though.
Amazon are selling something called Amazon Echo a small box that can do big
things.
Here is what it can do:
- Plays all your music from Amazon Music, Spotify, TuneIn and more using just your voice
- Fills the room with immersive, 360º omni-directional audio
- Allows hands-free convenience with voice control
- Hears you from across the room with far-field voice recognition, even in noisy environments or while playing music
- Answers questions, reads audiobooks, reports news, traffic and weather, provides sports scores and schedules, and more using the Alexa Voice Service
- Controls lights, switches, thermostats and more with compatible connected devices from WeMo, Philips Hue, Hive, Netatmo, Nest, tado° and others
- Always getting smarter - Alexa updates through the cloud automatically and is continually learning, adding new features and skill.
Isn’t technology great?
