The Endless Potential of Flying Robots

Right now a Parrot AR Drone may just be a toy quadracopter that retails for around $300 at Brookstone (not to mention Bill's favorite way to kill time), but today we're looking at all the potential applications beyond spying on your neighbors BBQ, including flying one through the studios of ABC News in New York (and giving Diane Sawyer a rude surprise).

A quadracopter is something of a blank canvas that can be used for the silly to the serious, from delivering tacos to couch potatoes in San Francisco to remaking the James Bond theme song at the University of Pennsylvania.

But what may be most intriguing is a concept coming from Tomorrow's Thoughts Today, a London based think tank lead by Liam Young, who has created a set of quadracopter prototypes that act as WiFi hotspots.

Once in operation these WiFi drones could be flown above crowds of protestors when access to the internet is cut off by authorities, like during the Arab Spring, or to house servers out of the jurisdiction of hostile governments, in the case of The Pirate Bay. It's one more step in the mobilization of technological infrastructure, one that creates limitless possibilities for the creatively inclined.