When HN users recommended it
1 HN user recommended this in 2013, in one comment.
20072026
Each tall tick is one HN user's first recommendation. A short tick is the same user again. Click a tick to jump to the comment.
1 HN user recommended this in 2013, in one comment.
Each tall tick is one HN user's first recommendation. A short tick is the same user again. Click a tick to jump to the comment.
People tend to underestimate how fast technological progress can happen, even in the field they specialize in, and even if they're consciously aware of this bias. This is why we see everything from skepticism to outright claims of impossibility about commercial delivery drones, even within the RC model aircraft hobby. These guys have seen electric model flight go from being essentially impossible in the 1990s to dominating the hobby shortly thereafter (thanks mostly to the rise of lithium polymer batteries). Then, mostly in the last 5 years, they've seen model multirotors (quadcopters, hexacopters, etc.) go from being an idea, to being a reality for more hardcore hackers [0], to being easy to assemble from parts with very little electronics knowledge [1], to being off-the-shelf toys for 40 bucks [2] (thanks mostly to the open source community and the rise of cheap smartphone sensors like gyros and GPS). It's hard to believe that even most of the multirotor community thinks that commercial drone delivery is a scifi fantasy, given how far multirotors have advanced in 5 years. Personally, my mind would be blown if this isn't extremely commonplace in another 5 years.
[0] http://rcexplorer.se/projects/2010/03/the-tricopter-v1-and-v... Notice that stabilization is accomplished "manually" with 3 gyroscopes.
[1] Thanks mostly to integrated multirotor flight controllers, which contain sensors and a CPU to perform stabilization, like http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__19534__HobbyKing_....
[2] http://www.amazon.com/Syma-Channel-2-4G-Quad-Copter/dp/B0096...