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Floating Drone Lamps Would Be Freaking Amazing

By Rain Noe - September 30, 2014

in Tech | Lighting

We've seen drones used or proposed for package delivery, elaborate selfies, action sports capture, movie promotion, and even weather control. But a recent creative collaboration points to the possibility of a more domestic usage that we think could be the killer drone app of the future: How about floating lamps? Which is to say, just the lampshade and a light source, no stem, no cable, hovering in mid-air, able to follow you around the room if need be.

In the video below you'll see what it would look like, but before it becomes domesticated, there are just a few (completely solveable) technological hurdles to clear:

Noise. To cancel out the incessant whining of a hovering drone, a small on-board speaker could project a noise cancellation frequency.

Power. During the daytime, the drone could dock itself, perhaps to something attached to the ceiling, where it would recharge the batteries required for both the light and its own sustained flight. (Ideally the power would come from solar, so you're not wasting a bunch of coal-fired juice on an admittedly frivolous technology.)

User Interaction. Remote control, gesture control or voice activation could turn it on and off, adjust the brightness and hue, and ask the lamp to follow you around or focus light on a particular area.

At any rate, a floating lamp would give you one less thing to vacuum around, if replacing a floor lamp, and free up some table space if replacing a desk lamp.

Maybe it sounds silly but it looks beautiful in practice. Check out this sweet video created in a collaboration between performance group Cirque du Soleil, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich and drone developer Verity Studios:

Here's how the team came up with the idea and pulled it all together:

Via Geek Tyrant

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Brian Hackett

9 years ago

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It'd be awesome for a pop-up restaurant in a field for dinner. Given a solution to the aforementioned sound problem.

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Ken

10 years ago

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Ditto what Olaf says. It's not just unrealistic. It's impossible. That said, it's still an amazingly cool concept (despite the horrible noise it will generate).
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Olaf

10 years ago

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I have done a lot of research in to noise cancelling during my graduation project and I have to say that the idea of cancelling the noise with an on board speaker is very very unrealistic.
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