Introduction

The other day an electrician came to our house to replace all the conventional fluorescent lights with LED lights. These LED lights are now offered at most DIY shops, and house owners are slowly embracing LED lights. This is also helped by lower LED prices, and many brands are competing in the marketplace.

LED lights are found in many applications, such as car daylights, Christmas decorations, street lights and toys. Many new applications are being discovered

LED Display Using Drones 

Recently, LED lights carried by drones have been introduced by the technology company, Intel  Inc. (Intel) at an event in Las Vegas, US.  Intel’s Shooting Star drones, which fly in formation, carried LEDS capable of more than four billion colour combinations. The company is said to have created a new, sophisticated art that is cleaner than the traditional firework display.

In a first-of- its- kind display, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) technology show in Las Vegas, Intel deployed 100 of its palm-sized drones to fly to a sound track of electronic music inside a theater in the Monte Carlo Resort. It later showed off 250 of its drones flying in synchronization with the formation show outside the Bellagio hotel dancing in the sky to form stars and concentric circles.

The entire swarms of drone are programmed with routines and controlled by one pilot.  Intel noted that it had wanted to demonstrate the potential of its drone technology as well as offer a new form of entertainment and display.

Drones carrying LEDs are likely to replace fireworks which have around for centuries since there were invented by the Chinese.

Although interesting and dramatic, fireworks create a lot of dust pollution and noise.  There are also dangers posed to the operators. Intel says that light shows are a way of re-defining night-sky entertainment. The new LED/drone combination offers better benefits such as the ability to create shapes and logos with a combination of colours and a vibrant mix of sounds.

Intel also notes that the positioning technology that keeps the drones close to each other without crashing could be used for other purposes, such as sweeping large areas during a search. Intel has previously demonstrated drone light shows at many events. However, those displays used larger drones that communicate with GPS. It  said that GPS could not be safely used for drones flying indoors or in semi-enclosed spaces such as sports arenas, music stadiums and concert halls. Such spaces are also off- limits to fireworks This means that the miniature drones provide a new way to bring firework-style shows in venues where that would previously have been impossible.

New Opportunities    

Unlike firework displays, which literally burn money, LED/Drone combination for display and entertainment is re-usable. This is a new business opportunity for an enterprising entrepreneur. Maybe, in the future, we may not need to have our car with headlights: LED/Drones combination would drive in front of the car to provide lighting. Not to forget the self-driving autonomous car. Bosch and other headlight manufacturers beware!

Reference: Mark Bridge Shooting Star drones could replace fireworks. The Times, January 12th, 2018.