Surveillance and reconnaissance copter toys from Swann

From being a maker of fine surveillance instruments and devices, Swann has now added reconnaissance also into its portfolio with the release of three different kinds of remote controlled copters. The idea of RC copters for indoor use has been prevalent for sometime now but most of these toys crashed into pets and other objects inside the home! By making use of an innovative coaxial gyro technology, Swann has gifted its little choppers with extra stability and maneuverability. And to do that, it has utilized the stack-o-rotors design. The three choppers in discussion here are the Sky Eye, i-Fly Micro Lightening and the Black Swann.

RC copter toys from Swann

The name itself provides an explanation for Sky Eye which has been equipped with a camera and recording facilities. The built-in memory is 512 MB, enough to find the culprit stealing the cat food or checking on the baby. However, is the baby is asleep, the Sky Eye might not be a good idea with its loud military sound. Welcome the Black Swann then! Built for stealth, the silent chopper moves about effortlessly and noiselessly through your home and gets back images and movies of its surveillance. The 'i' in the name of i-Fly Micro Lightening is suggestive of the fact that it can be controlled through an app on the iPhone. Talk about integrating two cool things.

Remote controlled copters have an ever-changing reactive torque. With an increase or decrease of the engine speed, the pitch of the main rotor blades also change. This change could sometimes be violent enough to throw the copter off balance and spin it out of control. Similar things can happen due to gusts of wind too. That is where the gyro box comes super handy in these choppers from Swann. The violent movements are picked up by magnetic sensors which convert the same into a proportional electrical response to the tail rotor servo. Thus, the yaw movement of the copter is reduced.

The infra-red connectors on the copters aid in connecting with the mobile devices and it is real fun to fly the little machines. The app has been aptly named as i-Fly. There is a transmitter to connect with the audio jack of the mobile device. The button controls then appear on the iPhone's screen and can be used to easily control the tilt and movement of the chopper. Gesture based movements have also been enabled by making use of an accelerometer. Thus, tilting your phone will do the same in the flying copter. Apart from making turns, the choppers are also capable of flying backwards.

Though the iPhone can be used to fly the chopper, the pack also comes along with a remote that can be charged and used for up to 8 minutes of flight time. Now, that is not much even for a toy! Even then, users claim that it is easy to make the copter hover using the controller but tough to do the same with the app. Priced at $70, the copters would have been a real blessing if only they could also transmit images and video real-time. Customers never seem to b satisfied!

Via: SlashGear