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Five quadcopters, one made up as a head, two as hands and
two as feet. They're programmed to fly in relation to each
other in such a way as to mimic a person walking, the hand
copters swinging forward and backward, the feet copters
landing on the ground and then alternating bouncing
forward
and the head bobbing up and down.
The copters are connected by very light material that
simulates the torso, arms and legs of a person.
You could also get rid of the body / arms / legs portion and
just have an "invisible man" walking with a hat, gloves and
shoes.
This could something cool to feature in a parade. As it came
"walking" down the street I think people would really like it.
It could be as tall as you wanted
depending on how powerful the quadcopters were. Several
stories tall if you wanted.
I'm picturing something that looks like the apple bonkers
from
the Yellow Submarine movie or the Nightmare Before
Christmas character walking along since by necessity the
appendages would need to be rather thin to reduce the load
on the air vehicle elements.
Of course you wouldn't be limited to human figures, you
could have dogs, elephants with an articulated trunk,
insects. How about an octopus with flailing arms? A dragon
or snake slithering through the sky with no arms or legs at
all could be cool.
Tall thin characters would probably work best.
http://pre08.devian...ortonii-d8ct0ge.jpg [doctorremulac3, Dec 20 2016]
This would be perfect.
http://vignette1.wi...t?cb=20131120003928 [doctorremulac3, Dec 20 2016]
You could do this without the people having to hold it.
https://www.youtube...watch?v=hKlO_3-hRCE [doctorremulac3, Dec 20 2016]
These things could walk, dance, gesture.
http://www.myadvert...9193957.680x739.jpg Picture a row of these all dancing the same moves like a chorus line. [doctorremulac3, Dec 20 2016]
Air_20Swimming
[xenzag, Dec 20 2016]
Old complicated version.
Wacky_20Walking_20I...20the_20YMCA_20Song [doctorremulac3, Dec 20 2016]
[link]
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This is an excellent idea. |
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Add strings of lights to this for a really cool night time
display. A dozen of these things walking along blinking and
flashing would really get people's attention. |
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This would be more effective that those fan powered flailing
man displays. They could dance and wave. Picture one of
these doing the Macarana in front of a car dealership for
instance. |
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You should patent this before you... oh, wait. |
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Still have 12 months from the date of publishing the idea. |
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I might. How much money did the guy who invented the fan
powered flailing man thing get? I wouldn't mind a couple of
million to pad my retirement account. |
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Think I'll send the provisional patent out today. Only costs a
hundred bucks. |
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Good luck. One point that you probably already thought of - the drones can be powered from the ground to allow long flights. |
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Yes, obviously, especially for the static ones you'd use for
advertising in parking lots and whatnot. |
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Gonna call them "Air Walkers". |
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Might license 'em out to the companies who sell those air
dancer things. Hundred bucks a pop. |
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Nice. Are the drones inside or outside of the clothing?
Inside might present a huge aerodynamic challenge unless
the clothing material breathes very well at key locations. |
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The material would be cheesecloth mesh or simply an array
of ribbons. |
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Even individual ribbons would give the basic idea. |
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Yours is for a suit that people wear controlled by the
person's
movements. //Air Swimming requires the wearing of a
Drone Suit.// |
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Mine's for a coordinated group of drones synchronized to
mimic the shape and movement of people, animals or
objects
linked together by ribbons, lights, cloth etc to give the
impression of a walking, gesturing or otherwise ambulatory
entity. |
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(Working on my patent wording here.) |
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So it's the same thing, only in your case no one wears the
suit. |
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//a coordinated group of drones synchronized to mimic the shape and movement of people, animals or objects// |
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Drone formations are known, which might prior-art that claim as worded. I think the key patentable claim might be that the drones are connected by ribbons, LED strings or other visible items which form a part of the representation. |
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consider beamed witricity to power them. A public domain idea |
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Max, yes, you're right. The patent wording is important. It's
the articulated material between the devices forming the
image of the entity to be represented that's the main claim
of the patent. |
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"Flexible Material Strung Between Aerial Vehicles Forming
Visual Representations of People, Animals and the Like
Whose
Movements Are Articulated By Said Vehicles". |
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I'd try to shorten it up a bit but that's the gist of the claim. |
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//consider beamed witricity to power them// |
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//Maybe the patent should mention "gonflable with
controlled articulation", which may be a different idea.
Going that route it could be more about flappy valves than
rotating blades.// |
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I already did a valve version of one of these on the HB back
in 2014. (see link) Then I added
flames to it. |
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It's gotta be easy, spectacular and cheap to be worth doing. |
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//I'd try to shorten it up a bit but that's the gist of the claim.// |
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Claim 1: A device consisting of one or more aerial drones connected to a fixed support, to one another, or both, by means of at least one flexible or articulated linkage, such that the device represents a human, animal or other recognisable structure. |
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Claim 2: A device, according to claim 1, in which the linkage or linkages are of ribbon or fabric |
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Claim 3: A device, according to claim 1, in which one or more LEDs or other sources of illumination are affixed to the drone(s) and or linkage(s). |
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Claim 4: A device, according to any of the preceding claims, in which the drone(s) is/are moved in such a way as to animate the device. |
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Claim 5: A device, according to any of the preceding claims, in which the drone(s) is/are supplied with power through wires incorporated into the flexible linkages |
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All my patents stick with one overarching claim.
Besides, each additional claim costs money, both to file
and
to renew. When I filled out the part of the form that said
"Would you
rather be rich or good looking" I checked the latter so I've
been trying to be frugal ever since. |
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Good patent writin' though there Max. Looks like you know
your stuff. Still think you missed the boat when you didn't
do that hinge idea of yours. The one where you use the
spade bit (I think it's called) to counter sink the door and
frame? |
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You still could. People do sell things without patents.
Here's the deal that I've heard from at least one very
successful rich inventor guy. By the time people decide it's
worth ripping off it's because you've already made your
money from it so just go for it. |
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Thanks [doc]. But I'm counting on making my money from the MaxCo Blaspheming Wood Chisel, rather than from easy-to-install hinges. It contains a pressure-sensitive trigger and a speech circuit, so that each time you hit it, it scrolls through a list of expletives. |
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Ah yes, the old swearing woodworking tool. Definitely an un-
tapped market. |
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I'll be looking forward to reaping the rewards from that
patent given that my name will be replacing yours on it. |
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You'd need to invent something to have your name on the
patent for it. |
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Your "idea" was to attach rotor blades to a suit and fly
around in it, an un-patentable idea in that there's nothing
original about a flying suit except that you made it un-
flyable by putting little helecopter blades all over it. My
idea is not a flying suit. It is for an array of helicopters that
fly in sync (not patentable yet, commonly known to exist)
then stringing decorative representations of people,
animals and such between them in configurations that,
when combined with the helicopters flying in combined,
synchronized
motions that mimic the person or animal being represented
give the appearance of that person or animal. Basically a
puppet with quadcopters instead of strings. Most definitely
not, a flying suit. |
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If you want to be in inventor, first invent something, then
patent it and
bring it to market as I actually have. Don't think you can
steal other people's ideas because you had an unworkable
"idea" that might have used some of the same parts. |
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Don't you have a Trump doll you need to stick pins in or
something? |
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Well, this is warming up nicely. |
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Don't go away - I'll go fetch a mediator. [2fries], you busy? |
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Did help me to get my patent wording clear though. I'm
going to call it "Marionette Articulated By Multiple Flying
Vehicles" Nice and simple. |
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Gonna post her idea here just in case she tries to change
it. |
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//Air Swimming
swimming to Cambodia
(+2)
(+2) [vote for,
against] |
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Air Swimmers look like they are preforming either the
Crawl or the Breaststroke only through the air instead of in
the water. Air Swimming requires the wearing of a Drone
Suit.
The Drone Suit has multiple motor driven blades located at
strategic points along the back of the arms, legs and
lumbar region. These are all linked so that the slow,
gestural hand and leg movements characteristic of
swimming are translated by gyros into a lifting and forward
motion action, achieved by subtle and co-ordinated rotor
blade feathering.
Air Swimming is only recommended for low level travel.
xenzag, Aug 05 2016// |
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A drone suit directed by the movements of the person
wearing it vs hanging decorative material between
swarming programmed drones to represent various
animated shapes characters. |
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I'm thinking they would have to be a combined
claim perhaps. Drones that transport objects that
look somewhat animated by the wind are already on
the market although I don't know of any that utilize
a formation to animate them; meanwhile drones
that organize in formations also exist, but the
combined claim might be considered novel enough. |
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Hmm. If you're willing to sacrifice the subtle control you would have with multiple drones, you could completely change this idea into a single drone, holding an upside-down wacky inflatable flailing-arm tube man, driven by the downdraft of the main rotor. |
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The figure could still be 'upright', but the air would be driven into its head, and it would be a wacky flying inflatable flailing-leg and -arm man. I wonder how impossible controlled flight would be. |
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So many good ideas lately. (+) I love this one. |
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You want "me" to mediate? Yikes, the barrel must be getting scraped pretty clean... The only part of infringement I really understand is the "fringe" part. |
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I figure that dibs go to the first person to actually build a thing unless current technology doesn't allow it to be built in which case first to publically disclose would win out. No hundred bucks needed. |
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Thanks 2. I really do want to do this. |
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I see the difference now. My original idea has a figure wearing the
suit, where in your derivative version of my idea, the figure has taken
the suit off. |
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It's not a suit, it's a string of lights, or ribbons or
other material that can form the outline of some
figure to form a representation of that figure. It
could be a person, an animal, it could also spell
out words or form moving abstract patterns. |
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Hey, look! It's Donald Trump on the news! You need to
go post some stuff about him! |
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One could use lasers to sketch the outline of the limbs, rather than connecting with tethers. Each drone must know the position of the other drones so directing a laser from one to another should not be hard. If powered from the ground or a rolling base (like a parade float) then this is less attractive. But at night and battery powered a laser-limbed drone thing would be able to make progidous leaps down the street, climb building walls, fly etc. Also with laser limbs one could assume different configurations on the fly: the thing could morph from long limbed man to bird to beast and back to man. |
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But lasers would only show up on foggy nights. Plus, getting permits to fly moderately powerful lasers on drones in a public space may be tricky. |
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Yea, gotta keep is simple. The idea is to actually do
this. Well, not this exactly but the other idea where
you just have the re-configurable visual elements
strung between the vehicles. |
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I am sure there are lasers which produce a beam visible on clear nights. I have seen them used for outdoor astronomy lessons. These might be the types which pose a hazard to helicopters, but I do not think the astronomers had any special permit. |
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An an aside I must insist that if any actual baking is done that all involved wear toques and aprons. At all times. |
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I think you should look online to see if there are drones that replace the batteries of other flying drones to keep it up in the air longer than half an hour. |
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Beamed witricity is another approach to continuously powering the multidrone figure |
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Well, what are we trying to do here? If the idea is to
entertain an audience for a few minutes we don't
want to over-design. |
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//Simple is beautiful.// You've not met my cousin Gwethlyn. |
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