If there’s one thing a group of college students are probably most aware of in the mobile space, it’s the iPhone. Case in point, this video here shows a group of UC Berkeley students putting their iPhone to use as a wireless remote control for an UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle).
The iPhone is used to task the remote-controlled airplane with a reconnaissance mission, and is then used to send mission commands to the UAV in real-time. The iPhone’s Safari browser is used to access a web-app that allows the users to issue commands and coordinates to aircraft, through a web-server. Commands and coordinates are relayed to the airborne aircraft and the video ends with a recon-picture of a specified area.
The idea is definitely a cool proof-of-concept for UAV control. But, as far as using an iPhone as a remote control is concerned, this isn’t exactly new territory.