Sorry To Keep Droning On About It But

Regular Irish Scene readers might recall an article in the May/June edition with the headline ‘Sky’s the limit for future generations’. In part that feature was about the use – for the first time – of hundreds of drones flying together in programmed patterns to create spectacular aerial displays over the night sky of Dublin for St. Patricks Day. The drone show was able to merge and form into several different images – even moving images – and messages written high in the sky. For a city still in lockdown, it would have been visible to thousands of people from their homes and millions on their TV screens and given watchers a lift. That article predicted this type of technology would wipe the floor with traditional fireworks displays (which can be environmentally damaging and drive household pets crazy) and would become the new standard by which big public events would be celebrated and something we would be seeing a lot more of in the future.

The next time the world saw the drones do their thing was for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Tokyo. The Japanese are of course well known for their love of gadgets and gizmos, so you would have to imagine they rushed at the idea of using it when they first became aware of it. That may have been some time ago and long before its Top: Just one moment in the spectacular air show for the opening colourful appearance as ceremony in July. Source: Twitter part of the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in Dublin, but that demonstration must have caught the eye of the Japanese organisers as a working example of what they were planning. Certainly there seemed to be some similarities in style. In any case the display for the Olympics created a stir in the media in Japan and even here in Australia where it was well received. So as the media like to say, watch this space and don’t be alarmed if you see a swarm of flying robots dancing in the sky for your entertainment in the near future. ☘