MIT develops wirelessly controlled Micro-helicopters displaying 3D images in air

MIT's SENSEable City Lab and Aerospace Robotics and Embedded Systems Laboratory (ARES Lab) is developing tiny microhelicopters displaying digital information in three-dimensional space.

It's called Flyfire. Flyfire consists of large number of remotely controlled, self-organizing "micro helicopters". Each helicopter contains small LEDs and acts as a smart pixel. The helicopters can be digitally controlled to perform elaborate and synchronized choreographies, generating a unique free-form display in three-dimensional space.

"It's like when Winnie the Pooh hits a beehive: a swarm of bees comes out and chases him while changing its configuration to resemble a beast," said E Roon Kang, a research fellow at the SENSEable City Lab who is leading the project. "In Flyfire, each bee is essentially a pixel that emits colored light and reconfigures itself into different forms."

The moving self-stabilizing pixels can form both 2D and 3D shapes in real time.

"Today we are able to simultaneously control a handful of micro helicopters, but with Flyfire we are aiming to scale up and reach very large numbers," said Emilio Frazzoli, head of the ARES Lab.

"Flyfire opens up exciting possibilities: as on a conventional screen, pixels can change color, but now they can also move, creating a transient trace of light in three-dimensional space," said team member Carnaven Chiu. "Unlike traditional displays that can only be seen from the front, Flyfire becomes a three dimensional immersive display that can be experienced from all directions."

"Flyfire is conceived as a public space installation, in which the pixels recharge every few minutes and then perform in space. "In general, there are two ways to increase the resolution of a display," said Carlo Ratti, director of the SENSEable City Lab. "One is to use smaller pixels. The other one is to look at it from farther away. Flyfire adopts the second approach to create a unique visual experience in large public spaces."

Supplying the energy continuously to these small tiny bee kind of devices and accurately controlling them wirelessly is the challenging part of this technology. As stated it is a step towards 'smart dust' -- the idea that computing is becoming increasingly smaller, addressable, pervasive - and persuasive.

The direct value of this technology is difficult to estimate but this technology can be used for lot more new creative applications.

The Flyfire project was developed by E Roon Kang, Carnaven Chiu, Caitlin Zacharias, Shaocong Zhou, Assaf Biderman and Carlo Ratti of SENSEable City Lab in collaboration with Erich Mueller and Emilio Frazzoli of ARES Lab.