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Join the Roswell Flight Test Crew as they conduct a side-by-side comparison of different resolution FLIR thermal imaging cameras, testing their detection range for a human-sized target, as well as judging their effectiveness for FPV flying. The cameras tested include: the Tau2 640, the Tau2 320 and the Tau2 160. The purpose of these tests is to help first responders interested in deploying FLIR-equipped drones to compare the performance of different cameras, in order to select one that will meet their needs. Contact us for more information on our line of FLIR Tau2 cameras for your own applications. Visit OEMCameras.com for more products. Video by Roswell Flight Test Crew: http://http://roswellflighttestcrew.typepad.com/ See more of their videos at: https://www.youtube.com/user/RoswellFlightTest

It seems like every company is testing out the idea of a drone delivery service nowadays, from delivering beer to pizza and anything else in between via drones. So Netflix decided to poke fun on their already successful DVD delivery service with their new Drone to Home video parody. Because waiting a day or two for your DVD is just not fast enough. Funny or practical?

Look through the eyes of doubles luger Matthew Mortenson as he shows us what it’s like to go zooming down the luge track in Sochi at a blazing 80 mph with a wearable HD action camera attached to his helmet. While it may look like a fun frozen water slide, Mortensen appears like he could careen off the course at any given moment. The course is bumpy, slick, and dangerously fast. He makes it looks easy, but it takes incredible core strength to control the sled and evenly distribute weight during tight turns. Wearable HD Action Camera Check out our line of Wearable HD Action Cameras and capture your own Olympic moment.

So what’s the difference between global and rolling shutters? The difference is between how CCD and CMOS sensors capture and process pixels. A CCD sensor usually has a global shutter and a CMOS sensor usually has a rolling shutter. Above is a video comparison of a fan at normal speed with a global and rolling shutter – we used a DMK-23U274 (CCD) and DMK-72BUC02 (CMOS) monochrome digital camera to capture the footage. Rolling Shutter – CMOS CMOS stands for Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor and is also referred to as an APS (Active Pixel Sensor) in the consumer market. CMOS or APS sensors read all of their pixels linearly from top left to bottom right while the shutter is open. The pixels don’t store any charge, they simply read how much light is hitting that pixel at the exact moment and convert that into an electrical signal. A rolling shutter (as opposed to a global shutter) is always active and “rolling” through pixels from top to bottom. This can result in the now-familiar motion artifacts often referred to as “jello.” Global Shutter – CCD CCD stands for Charge Coupled Device, and unlike the APS sensors, the pixels in a CCD store their charge until it has been depleted. A camera that has a CCD sensor almost always also has a shutter system, which can be electronic or mechanical. The CCD captures the entire image at the same time and then reads the information after the capture is completed, rather than reading top to bottom during the exposure. Because it captures everything at once, the shutter is considered “global”. The result is an image with no motion artifacts. – Joe Rubinstein, www.digitalbolex.com Application Although CCDs are not the only technology to allow for light detection, CCD image sensors are widely used in professional, medical, and scientific applications where high-quality image data is required. In applications where a somewhat lower quality can be tolerated, such as webcams, cheaper active pixel sensors (CMOS) are generally used. -Wikipedia.org Contact Us View our line of USB 3.0 Monochrome Cameras here. View our line of USB 2.0 Monochrome Cameras here. For more information – send us an email at support@oemcameras.com, call us at 1-888-919-2263, or leave us a comment below.

GimBall is another robot from EPFL’s Laboratory of Intelligent Systems that’s designed to withstand crashes. Powered by twin propellers and steered using fins, it uses a gyroscopic stabilization system to keep its balance. A spherical cage protects its inner workings from collisions, which means it can operate in cluttered environments without needing fragile detection sensors. The aim is to produce a robot that can operate in locations like a collapsed building, where it can ricochet through the rubble, relaying images to rescue workers via an onboard camera. Shop a variety of onboard cameras at oemcameras.com

In an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” on Sunday evening, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled Amazon Prime Air, a service that delivers packages via autonomous drones. With the service, Bezos said he hopes that the company will be able to deliver packages into customers hands within 30 minutes of the time they place an order. This seems like something from the Jetsons, the concept of an octocopter equipped with eight blades, built-in GPS, and a shoebox-size bin landing product right on your doorstep in less than half an hour with a push of a button! Well, the future is coming sooner than you think, as Amazon Prime Air could well be a reality by late 2015. Move over Santa, Amazon Prime Air will have us covered for the next holiday season. Tell us what you think of Amazon Prime Air? What would you order?

A year ago, Boston Dynamics uploaded a video of their quadruped robot, Cheetah, hitting speeds of 29 mph on a treadmill. Cheetah couldn’t live up to its name, but certainly faster than a human. Back then, it was plugged in and supported by a boom. Not anymore. Cheetah’s off the treadmill and out on the streets. Equipped with a roll cage, an on board engine, and a new name—meet Cheetah’s robotic cousin, WildCat! WildCat is an early model for field testing. It sports a noisy combustion on board engine, not unlike early field tests on pack robot, AlphaDog. And though its roll cage looks robust and capable of taking a fall (as it does in the video), WildCat’s handlers are keeping a leash on it. The robot’s top speed, so far, is 16 mph. But it certainly doesn’t look slow. Enabled by an articulated spine and bio-mimetic stride, its two gaits—galloping and bounding—are smooth, as is its ability to turn is quite impressive. Eventually, WildCat’s speed and maneuverability will be put to use in “emergency response, humanitarian missions, or other useful military applications.” What other kinds of applications do you see WildCat being used for? For more information about WildCat visit their website at www.BostonDynamics.com or see more awesome robot videos here.

Are you curious on how to connect a TAU 2 with a VPC module for the first time? FLIR Tau 2 uncooled infrared thermal imaging camera cores are designed for OEM integration and it’s easy to do with this step by step video. All you need is the following: FLIR Tau 2 thermal imaging camera VPC Module Kit Video Monitor or TV with an external video input USB power source You can learn more about FLIR Tau 2 cameras here.

When crops are the source of your income, you want to be prepared for anything. And a great way to protect your resources is to survey your property with a thermal imaging UAV. This video shows the Draganflyer X4, equipped with the FLIR TAU Camera, in action. It can be used to inspect and provide information on crops. In this example the Draganflyer X4 is used to inspect a vineyard. The resulting video shows where there are possible irrigation leaks and dead foilage. A UAV drone equipped with a FLIR Tau camera can provide valuable information without the need to survey the field by foot. Video by Draganfly Innovations Inc. View more videos from Draganfly Innovations Inc here. or visit their website. Check out our line of FLIR Tau 2 Thermal Cameras here.

Wow! What’s more impressive than one very agile drone? How about a multitude of drones flying in different formations together! This video shows experiments performed with a team of nano quadrotors at the GRASP Lab, University of Pennsylvania. Vehicles developed by KMel Robotics. See more awesome nano quadrotor videos here