The Parrot AR.Drone was a remarkable toy when it was introduced in 2010, offering consumers a ready-to-fly quadcopter they could control with an iPhone. In 2012, the company made that toy friendlier and more durable. But for 2014, the company is done just playing around. The new Parrot Bebop Drone — aka AR.Drone 3.0 — is also designed to be a tool for aerial photos and videos. Like its increasingly popular competitor, the DJI Phantom 2 Vision, the new Parrot flyer hopes to attract filmmakers and photographers with an increasingly high-quality flying camera, built-in GPS to fly programmed waypoints, and the ability to hover and pan the camera.

2010 年推出之时，Parrot AR.Drone 是一种引人注目的玩具，提供给消费者一种能飞的四轴飞行器，让他们可以通过 iPhone 来操控。2012 年，该公司使得这个玩具更加友好和更加耐用。但在 2014 年，该公司则完全放弃了玩一玩的心态。新型的 Parrot Bebop Drone — aka AR.Drone 3.0 — 设计目的也是作为拍摄航空照片和视频的工具。正如其日益流行的竞争对手 DJI Phantom 2 Vision 一样，新型 Parrot 无人机希望能吸引电影制作者和摄影家的关注，它拥有高品质的飞行摄像头、飞行至编程目标点的内置 GPS、以及盘旋和摇镜头的能力。

But Parrot may also wind up leapfrogging DJI with unheard-of image stabilization and range — plus the officially-supported ability to use a VR headset while flying around.

但 Parrot 可能也在戏弄竞相超越的 DJI，新型产品配备了闻所未闻的图像稳定功能和范围 — 外加官方支持的在飞行过程中使用 VR 耳机的能力。

Instead of using a motorized gimbal to move the camera — which would add additional weight — the Bebop Drone uses an ingenius combination of software and hardware to let a 180-degree fisheye lens do the trick. Using a dedicated image processor and loads of sensors, the drone simply carves out a nice small rectangular section of the huge curved fisheye image while simultaneously stabilizing the image digitally. That means you wind up throwing away a lot of the data, but it’s hard to argue with the results: a clear, stabilized video feed from a tiny drone that weighs less than a pound.

该产品并未使用机动的平衡环来移动摄像头 — 因为这将增加额外的重量 — Bebop Drone 使用了匠心独具的软件和硬件组合，让 180 度的鱼眼透镜来完成这个任务。透过使用专用的图像处理器和大量的传感器，无人机只是简单切取了巨大弧形鱼眼图像的一个微小方形部分，而与此同时实现对图像的数字平衡。这意味着您最终抛弃了大量数据，但结果却很难引起争议：从重量不到一磅的微型无人机上反馈的清晰稳定的视频讯号。

Besides, the ability to rapidly chop up pieces of a huge fisheye image allows the Parrot to perform another neat trick. If you buy the optional Skycontroller — a giant R/C flight controller with huge antennas that can communicate with the drone from a full two kilometers away — you can also plug in an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset and freely look around while piloting the drone from a first-person perspective. There was quite a bit of lag in a prototype we tried, which resulted in a painful-sounding crash into a wall, but it makes for an incredible out-of-body sensation and the featherweight drone emerged unharmed.

此外，迅速截取巨大鱼眼图像的能力使得 Parrot 能够漂亮地完成另一项任务。如果您购买了可选的 Skycontroller — 巨大的 R/C 飞行控制器，它有巨大的天线，能够在两公里之外与无人机通信 — 您也可以插入 Oculus Rift 虚拟现实耳机，在从第一人称视角操纵无人机时，自由地观察周围的情形。在我们测试的原型机中出现了相当大的延迟，结果导致无人机结结实实地撞到了墙上，但它还是提供了令人难以置信的体外感觉，而轻如羽毛的无人机最终没有收到伤害。

The elephant in the room is battery life, as the Bebop Drone is limited to 12-minute flights with its included 1200mAh battery pack. That’s not a lot of time to get the perfect shot for a film, nor nearly enough to make a two-kilometer trip. It’s also not clear what the drone might cost, but Parrot CEO Henri Seydoux said it will ring up somewhere between the original $300 Parrot AR.Drone and the $1,000 you might spend for one of DJI’s camera-equipped Phantoms.

美中不足的是电池寿命，使用包含在内的1200 毫安电池组，Bebop Drone 的飞行时间限定在 12 分钟。这段时间可不多，不能完美地摄制电影，也不够飞行两公里的距离。目前也不清楚无人机的成本将是多少，但 Parrot 首席执行官 Henri Seydoux 表示，它将在以下两个价格之间，即 Parrot AR.Droneit 最初的 300 美元价格和您可能花费在 DJI 装备摄像头的 Phantom 上所花费的 1000 美元。

The Bebop Drone should ship in the fourth quarter of the year.

Bebop Drone 应该能从今年第四季度开始出货。

From: The Verge

Translated by George, CCJK Technologies Co.,Ltd.

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