Drones Create Glowing Star Trek Logo Over London

Cognimancer

Imperial Intelligence
Jun 13, 2012
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Drones Create Glowing Star Trek Logo Over London


It's no Starship Enterprise, but Paramount found a fittingly futuristic marketing tactic for the next Star Trek movie.

Unmanned drones are at the forefront of modern technology, and we keep finding new ways to put them to use. From military surveillance to taco delivery [http://tacocopter.com/], these little guys are nothing if not versatile. As it turns out, they also work well for marketing. Paramount Pictures sent 30 LED-equipped quadrotor drones into the skies of London, where they formed a massive rotating Starfleet insignia to promote Paramount's upcoming Star Trek Into Darkness.

The drone formation took place next to London's Tower Bridge, giving it plenty of visibility to vantage points around the city. The logo stretched 308 feet between the top and bottommost drone. The quadrotors themselves were property of Ars Electronica Futurelab & Ascending Technologies, who have actually done this kind of thing before in Linz, Austria.

The advertising event overlapped with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)'s Earth Hour, in which many landmarks like Big Ben and the Tower Bridge dim their lights to promote conservation. The drones (which were charged with green energy from the Austrian renewable energy grid) were launched just before Earth Hour began, and blinked into darkness (very clever, Paramount) alongside the city's iconic buildings. "We are very pleased to go 'into darkness' with the rest of the world in support of Earth Hour," says John Fletcher, director of marketing for Paramount. "It seems fitting to be associated with such a global cause."

It's interesting to see one of the biggest sci-fi franchises in history being promoted with our modern technology as we close the gap between science fiction and science fact. Obviously there's a long, long way to go before we'll be hopping between planets in the final frontier, but it's important to remember that we can't create a Starfleet of our own if we burn up the planet before we have the chance to develop that technology.

Star Trek Into Darkness will hit theaters on May 17.

Source: CNET [http://www.cnbc.com/id/100584975]

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Quaxar

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Sep 21, 2009
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Nice marketing indeed. Much better than stashing bloody body parts all over the city like some <url=http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2329321.ece>other companies.
I initially thought there was going to be something more complex though. Like movement or something.
 

faefrost

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Jun 2, 2010
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Cool, yet deeply scary use of drone tech. I am not sure I am completely comfortable with marketing people operating swarms of micro drones in the public space.
 

Albino Boo

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Jun 14, 2010
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Some how I think its appropriate that they launched from in front of the building know colloquially as the bollock. Thank god that the lights are normally to bright to see this kind of thing.
 

weirdee

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Apr 11, 2011
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faefrost said:
Cool, yet deeply scary use of drone tech. I am not sure I am completely comfortable with marketing people operating swarms of micro drones in the public space.
well, it can't be much worse than bill gates breeding and then releasing mosquitoes just because he can
 

Something Amyss

Aswyng and Amyss
Dec 3, 2008
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Big deal. Batman's been doing it for years.

cjbos81 said:
This is the greatest thing I've ever seen in my life!!!
I read that, and all I can think is...



The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the....SPOILERS!

There's this guy....
 

Something Amyss

Aswyng and Amyss
Dec 3, 2008
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albino boo said:
Some how I think its appropriate that they launched from in front of the building know colloquially as the bollock. Thank god that the lights are normally to bright to see this kind of thing.
Are you mad? That just means you'll never know when they're coming for you!
 

thiosk

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Sep 18, 2008
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I totally signed up for the tacobot delivery service.

I really need tacos delivered to me by a robot, and I'm sure my pitch will cause the team at whatever company that was will agree.
 

Skeleon

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Nov 2, 2007
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Cute, but perhaps too few of them...? Or not bright enough...? I dunno, it lacked... impact.
 

crimson sickle2

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Sep 30, 2009
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I love the use of drones here, but a bit stronger of lights would be better. I was squinting several times to try to find the things.
 

launchpadmcqwak

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Dec 6, 2011
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hasty52 said:
my classmate's aunt makes $65/hour on the computer. She has been out of work for eight months but last month her paycheck was $20928 just working on the computer for a few hours. Read more on this web site FAB33.COM
Uhm....someone do somethiing about this?

OT: live long and prospect
 

chozo_hybrid

What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets.
Jul 15, 2009
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Looking forward to this movie, last one wasn't what I wanted from a Trek film, but I got over it quickly and had fun. The franchise needed new life put into it, and this movie does look better then the first.
 

Rainforce

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As much as I like the concept, abusing the Earth Hour to make your advertisement more visible is just straight up dick move territory.
I wait for the day when they get the technology to put (laser-based projection or something) ad banners on the moon, for all to see at night.
 

1337mokro

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Dec 24, 2008
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50$ says some idiot called the cops because he thought that the "sky was falling down because the stars stared moving".
 

Albino Boo

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Zachary Amaranth said:
albino boo said:
Some how I think its appropriate that they launched from in front of the building know colloquially as the bollock. Thank god that the lights are normally to bright to see this kind of thing.
Are you mad? That just means you'll never know when they're coming for you!
HA they will never find me in my Pigeon hat, from above I will look a pigeon flying around minding its own business. As to being mad, I was once now they have tested me and say I'm sane again. I'm SANE I TELL YOU
 

Danceofmasks

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Jul 16, 2010
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It's all fun and games until one morphs into a hatchery.

Oh, right. Not that sort of drones.
Until one zaps you for 40 damage, then.
 

Thaluikhain

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Jan 16, 2010
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Rainforce said:
As much as I like the concept, abusing the Earth Hour to make your advertisement more visible is just straight up dick move territory.
Yeah, tacking your marketing scheme onto someone else's thing is a bit tacky at the best of times.

...

Whatever happened to when the Germans could project a image of a lady on clouds to scare French people?