July 24, 2017

Dutch drone used in Game of Thrones

Filed under: Film,Technology by Orangemaster @ 3:56 pm

Back in 2014, we expanded on the Dutch actors in the television series Games of Thrones, and now in a friendly game of ‘Zoek de Nederlander’ (‘Find the Dutch person’), a Dutch drone is now also part of the series.

In season seven of Game of Thrones, a NEO drone from Dutch manufacturer Acecore Technologies from Oss, Noord-Brabant was used to film aerial shots in Iceland.

The NEO drone can lift up to nine kilos in the air, which was needed to carry the RED Epic Dragon 6K camera with Cooke s4 25mm lens, hanging from a Gremsy H16 gimbal. Even though there was a lot of wind during the shoot as well as temperatures of -20 degrees Celsius, the kit held up very nicely. The drone was used instead of a helicopter to save on time and money.

(Link: bright.nl, Photo by Anthony Kelly, some rights reserved)

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May 1, 2015

Rules for flying drones still bad for businesses, for now

Filed under: Technology by Orangemaster @ 2:53 pm

While private citizens have been allowed to fly drones of less than 4 kg as they please, business people like journalists need to wait six weeks to get a permit, take expensive lessons for months and ask permission from various government agencies. Not following these rules could mean thousands of euro in fines for business use. However, as of June 1st, the rules will be relaxed for the police, fire brigade and emergency services. In the mean time, the press and surely other business people continue to use light drones hoping not to get caught.

As of 1 October the rules for flying drones in the Netherlands will change for both private and business use. Business use of drones less than 4 kg will be the same as for private use, while hobbyists who want to fly drones heavier than 4 kg will basically be subjected to the same rules as what businesses have to follow now for all drones.

Drones in the Netherlands do come crashing down, sometimes they even crash and burn, but they also capture really cool stuff.

(Link: www.bright.nl, Photo of Drone by Karen Axelrad, some rights reserved)

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March 30, 2015

Drone to deliver asparagus, ringing in the season

Filed under: Food & Drink,Gadgets,Technology by Orangemaster @ 12:55 pm

One-Michelin-star restaurant De Zwaan in Etten-Leur, Noord-Brabant likes to make a splash in spring once white asparagus season kicks off and what better way to do that than having a drone deliver the white gold to your door.

On 1st April (no joke), a drone with a 15-minute battery that needs to fly 12 minutes avoiding all kinds of buildings and bridges according to many rules will drop off a crate of asparagus at the kitchen door of the restaurant. There’s a backup battery and a Plan B to land nearby if the wind is too much.

It’s not the first time De Zwaan and its owner Roland Peijnenburg have marked the start of asparagus season by creating a buzz. They’ve also used a hot air balloon carrying the town mayor and once had an asparagus relay race.

When you mention asparagus in the Netherlands, people think white asparagus and not green asparagus first. Here’s a white asparagus cocktail appetizer recipe for you as well.

(Link: www.deondernemer.nl, Photo of asparagus by Stephan Mosel, some rights reserved)

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January 12, 2015

‘My first day with my drone’ goes viral

Filed under: Technology,Weird by Orangemaster @ 5:10 pm

Zwier Spanjer, 26, was playing with his new DJI phantom drone for the first time and it all went South, which you can see and hear on the video at about 0:26 when it starts to sound like a swarm of killer bees descending on an unknowing Dutch village.

At the moment of writing this, the video had over two million hits on YouTube and according to Vice.com some 7 to 8 million hits on Facebook and other social media. Be sure to watch the 15 second ‘love edition’ as well.

(Link: www.vice.com, Photo of Drone by Karen Axelrad, some rights reserved)

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November 26, 2014

Utrecht’s Dom Tower shot in the fog by drone

Filed under: Film by Orangemaster @ 9:58 am

Jelte Keur, 32, from Utrecht shot a video of the Gothic Dom Tower of Utrecht surrounded by fog using a drone. Keur claims he waited 10 months for the right weather conditions to shoot this video, as he has had this thing with fog since he was a boy.

The music definitely suits the video, which I looked up (Shane Carruth, Leaves Expanded May Be Prevailing Blue Mixed With Yellow of the Sand from the 2013 film ‘Upstream Color’).

After you’ve watch this video, check out his other ones.

(Link: www.netherlands-tourism.com, Photo of Drone by Karen Axelrad, some rights reserved)

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November 4, 2014

Ambulance drone could drastically reduce response times

Filed under: Health,Science by Orangemaster @ 11:29 am

Belgian engineering student Alec Momont, a graduate at the Delft University of Technology, has developed an ‘ambulance drone’, a defibrillator which can fly at 100 km/h able to reach heart attack victims very quickly. It uses the GPS of emergency calls to navigate.

This drone or ‘Unmanned Aerial Vehicle’ (UAV), can get a defibrillator to a patient within a 12 km2 zone within a minute, reducing the chance of survival from 8 percent to 80 percent. Momont explains that it is the relatively long response time of emergency services of around 10 minutes, while brain death and fatalities occur with four to six minutes, which makes the fatality rate so high.

I’m easily convinced. It reminds me of an evening in the pub recently chatting outdoors and watching an ambulance trying to find an address in Amsterdam West with their GPS but having to ask us for directions. The police was following them, got lost as well and asked us for those same directions. I’m sure that wasted at least 10 minutes.

One drone is expected to cost around 15,000 euro and could also carry other medical tools.

(Link: phys.org)

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September 3, 2014

Drone film of Amsterdam’s metro goes viral

Filed under: Architecture,Film by Orangemaster @ 1:08 pm

We might as well be able to fly through the North-South line in 2014 because we can’t use the metro yet, although it was originally scheduled to be ready in 2011, then again in the summer of 2014, which also didn’t happen. Construction started in 2002 and the new current completion date is 2017.

Studio MAD made a promotional film for Thales Group Netherlands, which supplies access ports and ICT for public transport. It features a drone going the entire length of the North-South tunnel that runs under Amsterdam Central Station, which was one of the major hiccups of the project.

“The images were partially filmed with a camera under the drone, while the other part was filmed with a camera mounted on our ‘Skyglide’ rig. Our cameraman sat at the front of a bicycle to shoot, but the drone was controlled by a company with the license to fly one.”

(Link: www.dutchnews.nl, Image: Benthem Crouwel Archtitects)

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March 4, 2014

Dutch boffins create the world’s smallest drone

Filed under: Design,Technology by Orangemaster @ 3:56 pm

delflyExplorer2

The DelFly Explorer, the world’s smallest drone, has flapping wings and can fly around by itself, avoiding obstacles, according to developer Guido de Croon of the Delft University of Technology. Weighing 20 grammes, the robot dragonfly uses two tiny low-resolution video cameras, reproducing the 3-D vision of human eyes, and an on-board computer to see its surroundings and avoid crashing into things. It can fly around for up to 9 minutes without needing external control.

Smaller ‘flapping’ drones exist, such as the RoboBee developed by Harvard University students in the US, but they are not autonomous. “The Explorer has its own small lithium polymer battery that allows it to fly for around 9 minutes, while it ‘sees’ with its onboard processor and a specially developed algorithm to make instant decisions.

The drone’s predecessor, the DelFly Micro, was declared the ‘smallest camera equipped aircraft in the world’ in 2008 by the Guinness Book of Records.

(Links: phys.org, www.delfly.nl, Photo of the DelFly Explorer by www.delfly.nl)

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