Hacker Modifies ‘Power Glove’ For Definitive Drone Experience [Video]

When “Nintendo” introduced the “Power Glove” back in the 80s, it was not as well-received as the game company hoped. Riddled with control issues, it ultimately made playing video games a frustrating experience. It did look cool, though, and now a hacker has made it even cooler by using the glove to fly a drone.

Right now, the usual ways to control drones involve controllers with sticks and touch screens with corresponding buttons. With the power glove, engineer Nolan Moore replaced many of the components inside the video game peripheral in order to make it into a motion-based controller by using hand movements.

Moore showcased this feat during the 2016 Maker Faire and as he demonstrates in the video below, he can make the drone, which is a Parrot AR Drone model, fly up by raising his hand and make it go every which way he wants. Clearly, the technology still has a few bugs that need to be fixed, particularly in the response sector since the drone is a little slow in obeying the motions that Moore is making. Nevertheless, the accomplishment has potential.

As The Verge mentions, though, the Power Glove only resembles the Nintendo classic in terms of its appearance since everything else inside has been replaced in order to make it a viable interface in flying a drone. Some of the replacements include a modern control board, the Wi-Fi transmitter needed to interact with the drone, and better flex sensors so that Moore could control the drone through finger movements.

For those who are interested, Moore details his work on his blog. Moore explains the history of the project and what he needed to do in order to make it work.

Being able to control machines through thought-interface has been the dream of many sci-fi fans. However, though motion control is not exactly quite what they imagined, it could pave the way to the future that many hope to see.