My posting today is going to be fairly short because I am working on another post that I hope to have out by mid-week.

The results of Drones for Good came out.  The international category was won by a Swiss company named Flyability for a collision resistant UAV called Gimball.  It looks like a drone inside of a buckyball, but will gently collide with objects and then bounce off.  It bounces off of people too without injuring them.  For anyone who has seen a drone crash, this is a great idea!

Flyability’s winning “Gimball” drone design

The inventors explained that they were inspired in part by Fukushima, where the unmanned vehicles which were sent in could not work in the area due to obstructions hindering navigation. They had struggled to find funding for their concept, but now hope that the $1,000,000 prize will help them commercialize it within the year.  Congratulations to Flyability.

Watch the Flyability video here.

The domestic UAE competition was won by NYU Abu Dhabi for its Wadi Drone.  The Wadi Drone will be used to document flora and fauna in the country’s parks.  The team was inspired by the story of rangers talking long hikes in the heat to retrieve SD cards from camera traps in order to retrieve images.  The Wadi Drone will be able receive transmissions from the traps with more ease.  They will be using the prize money (AED 1 million (over $250,000) to implenent the program in the parks.

Watch the NYU Abu Dhabi video here.

Finally, my attention was brought to this picture that was taken by a photographer in Michigan of the Outer Light.  I’m a big fan of iced-over nautical photos to begin with, but this is absolutely gorgeous! The composition and timing is fantastic, but he is hoping to get a camera with a better sensor this spring (this is with a GoPro).  That is all that could improve this otherwise great picture.  You can see his full collection on Flickr. The ground-based photos, taken around the same time of day, have phenomenal color.  Just buying a good camera won’t get you these photo, but for one who knows how to take photos, it will help correct some of the loss of vibrance in the GoPro.

© Christopher Kierkus, February 6, 2015 – Used under Fair Use (17 U.S.C. §107)  Grand Haven State Park, Lake Michigan