WEBVTT - Off to the Drone Races 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.160 Brought to you by Toyota Let's Go Places. Welcome to 0:00:07.360 --> 0:00:14.600 Forward Thinking. Hey there, and welcome to Forward Thinking, the 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:17.400 podcast that looks at the future and says, come fly 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:21.440 with me, let's fly, let's fly away. I'm Jonathan Strickland, 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:24.720 I'm La, and I'm Joe McCormick. Today we're gonna be 0:00:24.720 --> 0:00:28.840 talking about one specific sliver of the future of sports 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:32.440 right specifically, the kinds of sports that don't involve moving 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:37.000 your body a whole lot. My favorite kind the less 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:39.720 moving of my body, the happier, the more competitive I 0:00:39.720 --> 0:00:43.879 can think. Actually, I am a champion at not moving 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:46.680 table hockey that you're pretty good at table I'm pretty 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:48.840 good at I'm actually pretty good at table tennis. Yeah, 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:51.040 I'm pretty good at that. If I weren't a very 0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:52.960 small girl, I would be really good at those like 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:56.720 Ninja Warrior course things. Yeah. We actually you have you 0:00:56.800 --> 0:00:59.320 been to the course here in Atlanta. I'm like a 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:01.960 little spider. I can go right up those walls. Yeah. Yeah, 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:04.080 it's kinda we have a we have a a Ninja 0:01:04.560 --> 0:01:08.560 Ninja Warrior style um training ground here in Atlanta. Playground 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:10.840 like adult playground, yeah, kind of like kind of like 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:14.120 one of those adult sized obstacle course type deals. So 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:17.280 in the past week, we've talked about how different, you know, 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:21.400 advancing technologies can change sports that exist today, like making 0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:25.240 them safer, maybe having a football technology that would make 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:29.040 it less likely for you to get gravely injured, or 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:33.840 even technologies that could boost human capabilities, which bring in 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:36.600 the question of fairness and what is human achievement in 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:40.680 that kind of world. Replace my bones with with adamantium. 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:42.880 So that's not what we're gonna look at today. Now, 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:45.960 we're going to look at things that have not been 0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:49.520 considered as sports in the past, but are on the 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:54.320 verge of becoming perhaps even a major sport in the future. 0:01:55.120 --> 0:01:57.600 So um, an example of this in the past might 0:01:57.600 --> 0:02:02.560 be just the standard robot battles, right, something that definitely 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:05.760 got some coverage. Uh, there are several TV shows that 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:09.000 were all about robot wars, and some of them were 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:13.160 more about pitting various builders against each other. Some of 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:17.120 them were let's put your robot against the house robots 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:19.760 and this sort of, uh, this obstacle course and see 0:02:19.800 --> 0:02:22.920 if you can get through that kind of thing. We're 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:24.880 looking at sort of an extension of that today. We're 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:28.480 specifically going to look at drone races, but before we 0:02:28.520 --> 0:02:30.360 do that, let's at least talk about some of the 0:02:30.360 --> 0:02:32.919 other stuff we've we've covered in the Realm of drones 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:36.120 because we mentioned it once or twice, yes, previously on 0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:40.040 the podcast, we talked about delivery drones. In December, it's 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:43.919 called droning. On other related listening, Jonathan and I did 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:47.760 a tech Stuff episode that was the history of drones 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:51.679 and the modern day commercial and military implications of the technology. 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:53.839 It was a pretty full episode. That one came out 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:57.720 in October and is called The Big Deal About Drones. 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:00.440 So if you would like a review of drone technology 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:03.200 and stuff, then then go check those episodes out. And 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:08.359 we're specifically talking about drones that are under human control today, right, 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:12.000 we're not talking about autonomous drones that team's program to 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:15.440 go through an obstacle course. This is a human pilot 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:18.680 that is depending on the type, it may even be 0:03:18.800 --> 0:03:20.840 more than one human pilot, although the all the ones 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:23.560 I was looking at was a single person controlling the 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:26.280 in real time, controlling a drone through of course exactly. 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:30.359 So that kind of leads us to what is drone racing. 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:33.280 Typically it does involve a pilot trying to get the 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:36.400 best time when navigating a flying drone through a complicated 0:03:36.440 --> 0:03:40.160 course as quickly as they possibly can. They may have 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:42.840 to race against other pilots at the same time, so 0:03:42.880 --> 0:03:45.760 it's not always just a time trial like you know, 0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:48.800 see if you can run this distance the fastest kind 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:52.160 of thing. Sometimes it's a race race where you can 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:54.920 have collisions and stuff that will impact you'll make it 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:59.000 more fun. Yeah, well, the banana peels are air banana peels. 0:03:59.200 --> 0:04:01.880 That red shell or maybe it's the blue shells. The 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:03.800 blue shells, the one that's the seeking one that goes 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:08.920 after the person in first place at any rate, that's correct. Yeah, 0:04:09.000 --> 0:04:12.400 my Nintendo knowledge is that hasn't completely left me. So 0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:15.320 it's it is. Uh. It is one of those things 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:17.839 where it makes it more exciting, both for the pilots 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:21.480 and for spectators. Right, the possibility that that two pilots 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:23.040 are gonna have to duke it out. There could be 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:25.719 a collision that could that could change the course of 0:04:25.760 --> 0:04:28.800 the race, not the physical course, but the outcome. Depending 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:31.479 upon the style of the race, pilots may all be 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:33.880 required to use the same equipment. This is not the 0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:36.760 case in all of them, but there are somewhere in 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:40.320 order to really test the skills of the pilot, everyone 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:44.200 has to use the exact same style of drone, and 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:47.880 in that way, it's incredibly similar to something like NASCAR, 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:53.159 where the rules governing how your car can be designed 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:56.640 are so strict that there can be pages of rules 0:04:56.640 --> 0:05:00.800 on something just as simple as tires, like they want 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:05.719 to make sure that a person's win or loss is 0:05:05.800 --> 0:05:10.440 more due to their capability as a driver as opposed 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:13.520 to the superiority of the machine they are in, which 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:15.279 is funny because if you go back and you watch 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:18.160 all those old movies where people are drag racing, it 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:20.520 seems like they're always talking about the car. They're comparing 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:23.599 their cars. My car is better than your car. Oh yeah, well, 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:26.720 I'll see you on the drag racing strip. Well, drag 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:29.159 racing is a little different from NASCAR racing, but I 0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:32.159 see what you're saying. Yeah, there are actual drone races 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:34.599 that are similar to those drag races. I mean, I 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:38.159 doubt they're racing for pink slips, but they actually allow 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:41.440 you to build and modify your own drone and race 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:44.039 it against other people's drones, so you might be using 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:49.920 very different UH layouts, designs, perhaps different motors um and 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:52.880 so therefore it really comes down to not just the 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:55.240 skill of the pilot but also the capabilities of the 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:58.480 machine itself, so you have both kinds. It just depends 0:05:58.560 --> 0:06:02.960 upon what the race rules state is allowed. Like if 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:05.240 it's one where everyone gets the same sort of stuff, 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:07.599 you don't bring your own drone there. You are issued 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:10.920 one UH usually one per race. As it turns out, 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:14.760 um an agility is really important in these right because 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:18.760 you're you're often are flying the drone under, over or 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:23.599 through obstacles. Because you're flying a drone, the race course 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:26.279 can be three dimensional. It's not just a you know, 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:29.239 out and back or a loop around. It might involve 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:33.520 having to increase your elevation or decrease it. It may 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:38.159 involve going through an area where you can't physically see 0:06:38.200 --> 0:06:42.200 where the drone is. In those races, typically they are 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:46.159 first person view or FPV races, you rely upon a 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:50.200 video feed from the drone itself. The pilot does right, Yes, yes, 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:54.000 the spectators just watch what's going on, but the pilot 0:06:54.080 --> 0:06:57.800 would be relying upon a camera mounted on the drone, 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:01.160 and the pilot would be wearing a headset that would 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:04.840 get the video feed from his or her drone and 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:07.120 from their perspective, it would be like sitting in the 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:11.239 cockpit of of a jet or some other flying device, 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:15.240 and that you would be flying through the course. So 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:18.000 you have to be able to recognize obstacles and make 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:20.600 decisions very very quickly in that case as part of 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:24.160 the skill. Uh. And it's incredible if you watch videos 0:07:24.880 --> 0:07:28.680 from the various FPV style races and you get to 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:34.400 see what the pilots see. I can't. My brain does 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:38.520 not work that fast. My my fingers definitely couldn't react 0:07:38.560 --> 0:07:41.480 fast enough. I would be the guy ramming the drone 0:07:41.520 --> 0:07:43.640 into the side of the wall over and over again 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:46.720 until it finally couldn't fly anymore. Sure, I mean, but 0:07:46.720 --> 0:07:48.480 but think about think about the first time that you 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:52.160 saw someone else playing like Castle Wolfenstein, and how I mean, 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:54.200 did did you have the same reaction? I know I did. 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:56.360 Like I was, I was like, it is physically impossible 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:58.680 for me to control a video game that does that thing. 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:02.000 And now I'm like, I'm old enough that I was 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:05.400 the first person to see that I saw play Castle Wolfenstein. 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:08.400 But I get what you're saying. Because I've definitely seen 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:12.400 people who are far better that I than I am 0:08:12.440 --> 0:08:16.240 at various twitch based type of gaming, and and it 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:18.960 is it's like there are different species. I mean, it's 0:08:19.040 --> 0:08:21.880 I can't even begin to imagine the amount of time 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:26.280 dedicated to that, to to develop that sort of skill. Um. So, 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:30.280 the that's a specific type of drone racing. Not all 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:33.079 drone racing is first person view racing, but a lot 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:37.600 of it is, especially today. Um And some organizations, like 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:40.280 the Drone Racing League have even gone so far as 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:43.400 to set up specific rules and points systems to award 0:08:43.440 --> 0:08:45.199 pilots and give them a score at the end of 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:48.760 each race, to allow for a kind of a league 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:52.840 based competition, right, so that you can have various types 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:56.360 of uh, you know, qualifying rounds and semifinals, that sort 0:08:56.360 --> 0:08:59.320 of stuff. And we'll talk more about that's a little 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:02.600 bit later, but first let's talk about some of the 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:06.559 the earliest drone races out there. And when we say early, 0:09:07.280 --> 0:09:10.240 it's not like this dates that far back. The drone 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:15.520 racing scene is pretty young. Yeah, because because the commercialization 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:17.920 of drones is pretty young. Yeah, I remember seeing I 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:20.400 think the first one I ever saw it was maybe 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:22.560 two thousand seven or two thousand eight, and it was 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:26.720 a parrot drone at CS and I was really impressed 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:31.600 by it. But since then we've really seen it get 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:35.840 uh embraced by a hobbyist market and then start to 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:40.720 blossom out where it's no longer just a a bleeding 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:43.120 edge kind of thing like the early adopters have had 0:09:43.160 --> 0:09:45.440 their hands on it for a while. Now we're starting 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:47.560 to see a lot more people get interested in this 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:51.760 particular type of technology. So let's talk about the first 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:54.920 national drone racing competition in the United States. Well, this 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:58.199 was actually held just last summer. The very first national 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:01.840 one was held in Sacramento at the California State Fair 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:06.839 on July uh and it was that it was the 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:10.120 very first national drone racing competition and the races took 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:13.520 place on a soccer field. The prize money for winners 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:17.800 to dollars, so there isn't some funds for this. People 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:19.720 are interested and they had lots of sponsors. I went 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:23.359 to their website as tons of logos and corporate insignias, 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:28.640 and I'm sure the hydro logo was in there somewhere probably, 0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:32.280 And you can watch some of these races in video 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:34.520 forum online. The races that I saw attended to be 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:36.600 sort of what we were talking about earlier, the twisting 0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:40.120 tracks with obstacles, kind of like a Mario Kart track. Actually, 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:43.280 um and there were a hundred and twenty pilots going 0:10:43.360 --> 0:10:46.880 into the competition. According to some news reports, they had 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:50.000 to put netting up around the soccer field to reduce 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:56.479 the risk of a runaway drone maiming a spectator, right, yeah. Typically, Uh, 0:10:56.520 --> 0:10:58.320 one of the things you can get on a drone 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:02.440 are the little the propeller guards. It's a circle that 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:06.000 protects from that sort of thing. But obviously, if you're racing, 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:10.400 you might want to reduce any weight on your so 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:13.160 you're like, let's get rid of those and turn this 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:17.319 into a face slicing machine. Measures off. Yeah, so that's 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:19.560 when you want to have these, uh, these sort of 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:22.640 barriers up just in the case that either maybe a 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:24.840 radio signals lost. It might not even be the fault 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:27.120 of the pilot, right It could be a technical failure 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:30.720 that would cause a problem, or it could be especially 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:33.640 if it's a first person view race that the pilot 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:38.000 has misidentified where the next marker for the course happens 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:40.560 to be right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so that if you 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:42.600 have taken the safety measures off, you also do not 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:47.400 take faces off. And so the winner of the competition 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:49.920 was actually an Australian, which I thought was funny because 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:53.120 it was the first U S national championship and yet 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:56.319 it had international participation. So the winner was Chad and 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:59.959 no whack of Brisbane, Australia and uh, and they're gonna 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:01.679 they're gonna hold another one this year. I believe it's 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:05.560 going to be in New York, right yeah, uh. And 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:08.040 so I was reading a few articles about this and 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:10.160 there was one I came across that was really cool. 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:12.760 It was a CBS News article and they talked to 0:12:12.800 --> 0:12:18.000 one of the competitors from the competition named Zoe Stumbog, 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:21.520 and she she gave some quotes that I thought were interesting. 0:12:21.559 --> 0:12:23.120 I want to know what y'all think about this. So 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:26.040 she used to be in into motorcycles, and she said, yeah, 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:29.320 motorcycles were my thing. It was everything to me, like 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:31.880 being able to ride. It gave me this whole experience 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:34.920 of being outside my body into the world and living. 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:38.760 I really couldn't live without it. But then she had 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:41.400 a medical issue that restricted her to bed for a 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:44.040 long time, a period of months, and it prevented her 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:47.800 from riding motorcycles anymore. And so she reported that she 0:12:47.920 --> 0:12:49.959 got very depressed for a while until one day she 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:52.400 went to a hobby shop and discovered a little micro 0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:56.280 quad copter and she immediately fell in love with it. 0:12:56.360 --> 0:12:59.240 And she has been doing drone racing. So you can 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:01.560 actually go to her YouTube channel and check it out. 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:03.280 I want to talk about a couple of those videos 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:05.560 in a minute, but she went on to say that, 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:08.760 um that she said quote, once I put the camera 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:11.480 on it, you start doing the first person view, and 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:15.240 it really was like riding around on a motorcycle. You 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:17.680 were living in the world around you and no longer 0:13:17.720 --> 0:13:20.640 in a bed sitting down feeling hurt, depressed or whatever, 0:13:20.840 --> 0:13:24.800 and nothing else mattered when you had the goggles on. Uh. 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:27.200 And I don't know, I thought that was interesting, Like 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:31.440 I thought of drone racing as a kind of like, uh, 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:34.559 kind of like a video game, like sitting back and passive. 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:36.679 But I I guess that's probably not the case. Really, 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:39.240 I I can totally get what she's saying because I 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:41.560 think back to when I was a kid and I 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:44.840 used to ride my bike a lot, and I lived 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:47.959 on a really you know, it wasn't a super steep hill, 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:50.719 but it was a very tall hill, and once you 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:53.560 started getting up to speed, like you sort of do 0:13:53.679 --> 0:13:57.280 have almost an out of body experience like it. It's 0:13:57.320 --> 0:13:59.600 the closest you feel that you're going to get to flying, 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:02.800 short of being on a hang glider or or jumping 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:05.720 out of a plane or something like that. And uh, 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:10.240 and we've talked before about virtual reality experiences that are 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:13.120 so immersive as to make you feel as if you're 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:18.400 actually in the environment that's being simulated. Right, I hesitate 0:14:18.480 --> 0:14:22.560 to call drone racing type of virtual reality. It often 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:26.160 uses the same equipment virtual reality uses. But because the 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:30.480 actual environment is not virtual, and I get really picky 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:33.160 about such things, I don't call it there. It's not 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:37.320 virtual reality. It's remote reality. Yes, I would agree entirely 0:14:37.320 --> 0:14:40.520 with that that um that moniker. I would say it's 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:44.080 remote reality, and but it's it still has that feeling 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:47.040 of immersion. In fact, people say, like when you wear 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:52.520 those FPV glasses and you're piloting, it feels like you're 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:55.280 in one of those I would not be surprised to 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:59.000 see video of pilots working these and watching them kind 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:03.920 of duck the heads as they crash. I'm sure you flinch. Yeah, absolutely, 0:15:04.080 --> 0:15:05.800 yeah I can. I can just because I just think 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:09.320 about like passive experiences, like watching a movie and occasionally 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:12.000 kind of leaning whenever you know, like you're really into 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:15.920 the film and there's maybe like a race sequence or yeah, 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:18.120 same sort of thing, except you're in control, which gives 0:15:18.240 --> 0:15:23.120 that immersion feeling a much greater sense in the person. Right, 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:27.040 you feel more immersed because you what you do matters, right, Yeah. 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:29.760 So and and I even got some of the sense 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:31.840 just from watching some of these videos. I mentioned that 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:34.680 Zoe Stumball has a YouTube channel and it's called Zoe 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:37.440 Full Throttle. I went and checked it out. Uh, And 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:39.880 there's some great nerdy in jokes in some of the videos, 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:41.760 but a lot of it's just it's just first person 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:45.640 video of the drones point of view as it's flying around, 0:15:46.160 --> 0:15:48.440 and you can really get into it. I watched one 0:15:48.440 --> 0:15:50.760 that was set to the Legend of Zelda theme music. 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:53.520 But then there was another really cool one that was 0:15:53.560 --> 0:15:57.240 a first person view of a drone flight zooming in 0:15:57.320 --> 0:16:00.520 between tall trees in this forest like setting, and it 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:04.080 was set to Star Wars music, and then I was like, oh, 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:07.160 I get it, Oh, I get it. They're recreating the 0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:09.920 view of the speeder bike race from Return of the 0:16:10.000 --> 0:16:12.680 Jedi in the forest Moon of Indoor, when there's zooming 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:15.640 around in between the trees, and it works pretty well. 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:17.760 I was watching this video and I was like, oh, man, 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:21.920 I'm there. Yeah, yeah, that's pretty awesome. And so the 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:27.440 opportunity to use drones in that kind of entertaining way, um, 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:31.040 you know, we we've seen some interesting applications of that already, 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:35.920 but then incorporating that into the race experience, you can 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:42.280 see how this could really lead to some potentially amazing 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:45.240 immersive forms of entertainment. Well yeah, I mean one of 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:48.040 the things I was reading about and thinking about was 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:51.480 the idea of spectators of drone races not just watching 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:54.480 the drones all zoom around, right, having on their own 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:57.880 FPV goggles on. Theyre not controlling the drones, but if 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:00.000 you know, you pick your drone and you see from 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:02.280 its point of view. Yeah, especially if we got some 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:05.800 some some fancier equipment in there's some three six degree cameras, 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:09.800 some VR goggles involved, Like that sounds a really motion 0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:13.360 sick potentially, but but be like so much fun. What's 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:16.280 a good race without a little bit of vomiting? That's 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:20.600 what I always say. It takes me back, so Uh. 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:22.960 The interesting thing is we when we went into the 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:26.959 research for this knowing that this is a relatively young sport, right, 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:29.639 a young activity that hobbyists have been doing for a 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:32.480 few years. But we're starting to see ramp up into 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:37.440 something that's that's getting more um mainstream media attention. Over 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:41.399 the last maybe six months or so. We had a 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:44.320 question in our notes, just are there any official organizations 0:17:44.320 --> 0:17:48.480 for drone racing? Boy? Howdy? Are there? There are so 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:51.800 many that you know. Part of that is because it's 0:17:51.840 --> 0:17:54.920 so young that they're probably gonna be one or two 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:59.560 that ultimately draw the most membership, But there are a 0:17:59.640 --> 0:18:01.200 lot that are out there. Some of them are very 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:05.119 regionally based, so there may be an official local chapter 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:09.159 of some of these in your area. UM, if you're 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:12.439 in the United States, one place to go check is 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:14.960 the u s d R, a site that stands for 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:18.720 US Drone Racing Association and its mission is to help 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:22.719 bring the new sport of remote controlled multi rotor fpv 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:26.960 U a vs into the mainstream they're not going to 0:18:27.080 --> 0:18:28.480 do it like that. Yeah. I was just about to say, 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:31.280 here's a hint, guys, let's cut down some of the 0:18:31.320 --> 0:18:34.160 track and yeah, yeah, you a V. If you've never 0:18:34.200 --> 0:18:39.400 heard that term before, is is unmanned aerial vehicle. Yeah. Yeah. 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:42.320 So as part of that, their association works to create 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:45.639 guidelines for races so that they can make sure that 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:49.480 any competitions that are set up are fair, that they 0:18:49.680 --> 0:18:54.119 have appropriate safety considerations in place, that sort of stuff 0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:58.520 in order to allow this this activity to thrive. Like 0:18:58.680 --> 0:19:01.400 what that's what that organization is dedicated to. They don't 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:06.160 want to see, uh, someone put together a shoddy event 0:19:06.400 --> 0:19:10.760 and then it ends up hurting the blossoming sport as 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:13.520 a result. They also provide resources to people who are 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:16.560 interested in finding groups that race drones. So if you're 0:19:16.600 --> 0:19:19.800 in the United States, it's a great resource. The Drone 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:23.520 Racing League is another organization. It's a it's a relatively 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:27.399 young one, relatively new one. Uh. They announced their first 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:32.280 competitive season just back in January, so they have not 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:35.600 been around for very long at all. Yeah, it's April. 0:19:36.480 --> 0:19:40.200 We're recording this. Yeah, so they hope to combine video 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:43.879 from from the drones themselves and from the third person 0:19:43.920 --> 0:19:47.480 perspective videos which are actually often captured by other drones 0:19:47.600 --> 0:19:51.600 that are carrying like four K cameras. So you've got 0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:53.840 the drones that are that the pilots are using, they 0:19:53.880 --> 0:19:56.480 have an HD camera mounted on them, and you've got 0:19:56.520 --> 0:19:58.760 the drones that are just flying around the course that 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:01.720 can get you know, good shot of the racers zooming 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:04.600 by them, um like you do in sports. That's a 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:07.960 pretty common method for getting footage in in UH football 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:10.880 and stuff like. Sure. Yeah, And what's interesting to me 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:13.600 is that the HD video that these drones are capturing, 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:16.080 that's not the video that's going back to the goggles 0:20:16.400 --> 0:20:18.800 that the pilots are wearing them. The reason for that 0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:22.679 is HD takes up a lot of bandwidth. Yeah yeah, 0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:25.040 and then that would be a communication problem with then 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:27.280 a single space, especially if you've got more than one 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:29.479 drone going at the same time, right, and even if 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:31.960 they're all working on different channels, it's just such a 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:35.639 huge demand to be able to transmit that amount of 0:20:35.680 --> 0:20:38.320 information that quickly. What would tend to happen is you 0:20:38.359 --> 0:20:41.720 would have some latency or lag, and that means that 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:44.800 the pilots would not be able to control the vehicle 0:20:44.880 --> 0:20:46.639 very well. If you've ever played a video game that 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:49.879 had really bad latency issues, you know what I'm talking about. 0:20:49.880 --> 0:20:53.080 Where you know, you see the jump coming up, and 0:20:53.119 --> 0:20:55.320 you press the button when your character is at the 0:20:55.440 --> 0:20:57.920 appropriate spot, but your character just keeps running and then 0:20:58.000 --> 0:21:01.240 runs off the edge of the cliff because the game 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:04.359 was several steps ahead of where you were seeing it, 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:07.800 and you can see is your character falls to its 0:21:07.840 --> 0:21:10.359 untimely death. It's like a kind of flirp in the 0:21:10.400 --> 0:21:13.800 air when the jump button finally goes through. Now, imagine 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:16.360 that that happens to you. When you're controlling a drone 0:21:16.400 --> 0:21:19.040 moving at more than a hundred miles per hour and 0:21:19.119 --> 0:21:21.960 there's a narrow hallway coming up that you have to 0:21:22.000 --> 0:21:24.600 maneuver into. You're pretty much gonna end up with a 0:21:24.640 --> 0:21:28.639 bunch of drone pieces on the ground because you cannot 0:21:28.720 --> 0:21:32.320 physically move anticipated at the right time. The lag will 0:21:32.320 --> 0:21:35.439 totally mess you up. Plus, I don't know if you 0:21:35.440 --> 0:21:39.200 guys have ever experienced latency in a VR headset, that's 0:21:39.200 --> 0:21:42.360 a one way ticket. The Pukeville as gonna get you 0:21:43.119 --> 0:21:46.520 sicker than a dog so quickly because latency that that's 0:21:46.520 --> 0:21:49.800 what gives you that that swimmy feeling that things are 0:21:49.840 --> 0:21:52.080 not quite right. And if if you're going on a 0:21:52.160 --> 0:21:53.800 miles per hour and things are not quite right, that's 0:21:54.240 --> 0:21:56.320 you're you're gonna get sick pretty quickly. You know. I 0:21:56.440 --> 0:21:59.320 just now had a thought that the next thing after 0:21:59.440 --> 0:22:02.280 drone race, it's going to be drone demolition derby. Isn't 0:22:02.280 --> 0:22:06.760