In the years since we first caught wind of Eric Austin, a pioneer of videography via remote control helicopter, the man's business and client list have exploded. The following year we saw a similar pioneer capture footage of the Warsaw riots, earlier this year a third shooter rigged up a camera/airplane, and nowadays a company called Quadrocopter is selling RC whirlybirds ready-to-go.
We're excited to see design advancements in this field, which was virtually nonexistent just a few years ago. Danish shooter Ebsen Nielsen has made the latest advancement: After cobbling together an octo-copter from several different manufacturers' kits, he rigged up a way to send a live feed from the camera to a pair of goggles he wears, enabling him to fly it from a first-person POV.
Heli showreel late summer 2012 from Esben Nielsen on Vimeo.
If realtime video-to-goggles becomes standard kit, that ought to open these helicopter drones up to a whole 'nother level of applications. Imagine being able to inspect your leaky roof, or a building inspector checking out the antenna at the top of a skyscraper, using one of these things. If you could work out the safety/piloting issues, I could even see these used for recreation: I'd pay to see self-controlled POV footage from flying over Manhattan or the Grand Canyon.
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