Quadcopter finds moose

January 8, 2013 11:50 AM

Fellow Norwegians used a quadcopter in the woods and came up on a moose. The audio when they discover it is funny, even if you don't understand Norwegian.
posted by tingo (45 comments total)

Wow. Airborne tracking shots in movies are about to get a WHOLE lot cheaper.
posted by Decimask at 11:58 AM on January 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

In before 'a moose once bit my sister'.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 12:03 PM on January 8, 2013 [13 favorites]

That was great -- and the quality of the second camera they switch to was amazing. I wonder if one is for steering, and the other was recording and they downloaded it later?

Also, the excited Norwegian banter led me to believe they were also going to find some Cheez Doodles alongside the moose!
posted by This_Will_Be_Good at 12:03 PM on January 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Yeah, and it's already happening. For example a few months back some guys from diydrones.com announced they were going to Africa to work on the new Mad Max film.
posted by jjwiseman at 12:04 PM on January 8, 2013

Wow. Moose surveillance is about to get a WHOLE lot cheaper.
posted by codacorolla at 12:04 PM on January 8, 2013 [25 favorites]

Moose is thinking that the blackflies are going to be really bad this season.
posted by Kabanos at 12:05 PM on January 8, 2013 [14 favorites]

In Montana, it is illegal to hunt in an area within 24 hours of flying over in a plane for purposes of spotting game. It is also illegal to use 2-way communication devices between hunters to alert each other of game while in the field. I think they may need a new law.
posted by 445supermag at 12:07 PM on January 8, 2013 [5 favorites]

In Montana, it is illegal to hunt in an area within 24 hours of flying over in a plane for purposes of spotting game. It is also illegal to use 2-way communication devices between hunters to alert each other of game while in the field.

Is this to avoid the industrialization of hunting or something?
posted by adamdschneider at 12:13 PM on January 8, 2013

This is just viral advertising for the Norwegian re-make of Paranormal Activity.

Pepsi blå.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 12:20 PM on January 8, 2013 [4 favorites]

I think this explains UFO sightings. And I for one don't mind playing the role of the moose in some super-intelligent aliens' surveillance if it makes them laugh as much as those Norwegians are laughing.
posted by benito.strauss at 12:20 PM on January 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

In before 'a moose once bit my sister'.

I once had a dream where a moose ate the girl who lives two doors down from me.

Someone hit a moose in a Ford Focus in Vermont a few weeks back, causing a three car accident with no serious injuries to people (the moose didn't fare so well, I don't think). Why do I know it was a Ford Focus? VPR made a point of telling us. My mother's theory is that it was to give us confidence that we, too, could hit a moose in a small car and not die.
posted by hoyland at 12:21 PM on January 8, 2013

Being Norwegian, this video clearly needs a death metal soundtrack.
posted by slogger at 12:25 PM on January 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

Wow. Airborne tracking shots in movies are about to get a WHOLE lot cheaper.

Yep ... friends of mine who are television/film producers are hiring folks who can operate these quadcopters.

One was also used by a family friend to film footage for an Aspen/Snowmass television commercial. Snowmass MTB Octocopter Preview.

There are many great quad-and octocopter videos at Vimeo.
posted by ericb at 12:28 PM on January 8, 2013

Is this to avoid the industrialization of hunting or something?
posted by adamdschneider

It's to prevent rich guys from having an advantage by surveying huge amounts of area by plane or have a group of guides direct them to the animals.
posted by 445supermag at 12:32 PM on January 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

it was a moose!
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 12:35 PM on January 8, 2013

My mother's theory is that it was to give us confidence that we, too, could hit a moose in a small car and not die.

If you hit a moose in a Chrysler Sebring, you can just keep driving to work.
posted by Kabanos at 12:53 PM on January 8, 2013

This footage was actuallly shot for Trollhunter 2. They're digitally replacing the moose by a computer-rendered big-nosed jǫtnar troll as we speak.
posted by elgilito at 1:04 PM on January 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

No animals were hurt? Guess we're not counting my ears.
posted by yerfatma at 1:25 PM on January 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Earnimals.
posted by adamdschneider at 1:30 PM on January 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

That moose probably had to poop and was waiting for that damn thing to give it some privacy.
posted by orme at 1:46 PM on January 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

I love the perspective of the camera here; you're essentially a low-flying bird. Imagine being able to rent one of these things over the web and fly it around, in a location of your choice (and a manner which is least intrusive to animals and the environment). Not sure how you would control for people being idiots, but that would be like a lovely mini vacation for me.
posted by preparat at 1:55 PM on January 8, 2013 [5 favorites]

in a location of your choice

I don't mean absolute choice here. I'm thinking someone runs a business in a location deemed interesting by them, and I rent their equipment over the web and fly it around a forest, or coast, and so on.
posted by preparat at 2:04 PM on January 8, 2013

From the point of view of the moose, that quadcopter is a classic UFO sighting. His buddies would never have believed him though, not since he said he saw bigfoot the year before.
posted by datter at 2:12 PM on January 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

Maniacal laughter is the same in any language.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 2:40 PM on January 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

preparat: You could geofence the drone and put in minimum and maximum altitude limits, and speed limits. The geofence could be a complicated shape that would just keep you in the right area plus prevent you from running into trees and other obstacles.
posted by jjwiseman at 3:09 PM on January 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

(And I already have code that lets multiple people fly a drone from a web browser.)
posted by jjwiseman at 3:10 PM on January 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

It makes me a little sad how the moose doesn't seem very curious about the drone. The moose looks up at it like "Muh?" and then concludes that "Meh". Does it see these things a lot, or does it just lack curiosity?
posted by Galaxor Nebulon at 3:28 PM on January 8, 2013

- It's a moose! How cool recordings are not. It's cool pig, legendary, absolutely magical, says the trio in clip.


And then they giggle and giggle and giggle.


The moose looks up at it like "Muh?" and then concludes that "Meh".

"I can't eat it. It can't eat me. I think we're done here."
posted by louche mustachio at 3:33 PM on January 8, 2013 [7 favorites]

So. Quadcopter. Quadrocopter. Quadricopter. Is which?
posted by Devonian at 5:39 PM on January 8, 2013

That's very cool, jjwiseman!

I'd sure like to geofence some people at work.
posted by preparat at 5:42 PM on January 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Pfft. This film has no "Moose Choreography" credit at the end. Or the beginning.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 5:45 PM on January 8, 2013

I'm curious how long one of these stays airborne with a typical fuel load? How many minutes do you really get before you have to land?
posted by humanfont at 5:52 PM on January 8, 2013

That is so cool. I have to show my wife, she speaks some Norwegian.

As someone who has survived a collision with a bull moose, I'd suggest not testing the small car theory. The Minivan I was in got messed up. (Poor moose. It was the first weekend of moose hunting season. The hunters back in town were very interested in the location of the accident.)
posted by Area Man at 6:12 PM on January 8, 2013

7-15 minute flight times are typical, though some vehicles are supposedly able to go 25 minutes with no payload (no cameras). If you're trying to do something like matternet/dronet, that can be a problem--here's a hybrid terrestrial ground/airbot that the designers think will be able to go 4x further/6x longer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbtkpYIbuCw
posted by jjwiseman at 6:20 PM on January 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

It'd be about 10 seconds before people were renting out quadcopters over beaches in the Riviera. If they aren't already.
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 6:47 PM on January 8, 2013

The moose would like his 45 minutes back.
posted by Flashman at 8:21 PM on January 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

In before 'a moose once bit my sister'.

No realli! She was Karving her initials on the møøse with the sharpened end of an interspace tøøthbrush given her by Svenge -- her brother-in-law -- an Oslo dentist and star of many Norwegian møvies: "The Høt Hands of an Oslo Dentist", "Fillings of Passion", "The Huge Mølars of Horst Nordfink".
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:19 PM on January 8, 2013

That moose probably had to poop and was waiting for that damn thing to give it some privacy.

Privacy? Why does a moose need privacy from surveillance drones? DOES THE MOOSE HAVE SOMETHING TO HIDE? That's evidence of GUILT!
posted by Sunburnt at 10:38 PM on January 8, 2013

No people, animals or equipment were hurt during these recordings.

Yes, but they did mildly annoy one moose.
posted by eye of newt at 12:21 AM on January 9, 2013 [1 favorite]

It'd be about 10 seconds before people were renting out quadcopters over beaches in the Riviera. If they aren't already.

Derail but that ain't going to happen any time soon. We have an international airport in Nice and the Mediterranean is essentially one huge takeoff and landing approach area, since aircraft are forbidden over the cities. We're not even allowed to fly kites here, mountainous wild areas included. Anything that goes into the air here has to be licensed, even those parachute-things towed by motorboats.

More on topic, nor do we have moose :( They really are majestic in person. I miss crossing them in the wild.
posted by fraula at 1:09 AM on January 9, 2013 [1 favorite]

From the point of view of the moose, that quadcopter is a classic UFO sighting.

For the rest of my life, anytime I see some footage on TV of a UFO sighting or close encounter, I will hear the aliens speaking Norwegian.
posted by buzzv at 1:51 AM on January 9, 2013 [2 favorites]

I miss crossing them in the wild.

That sounds like the opening to an obituary.
posted by yerfatma at 7:51 AM on January 9, 2013

I'm picturing a Moose who's had a few too many fir-tree bourbons telling the story about the time he saw the UFO to all of his woodland friends as they get more and more irritated at having to hear the story for the umpteenth time.
posted by codacorolla at 9:32 AM on January 9, 2013

"I'm picturing a Moose who's had a few too many fir-tree bourbons"

He was never the same after the UFO incident...
posted by the_artificer at 10:52 PM on January 9, 2013

I was switching my mobile provider and upgrading to a newer smartphone earlier this week and amidst all the accessories was the AR Drone 2.0. I bought it. It is awesomely fun. Though I'm going to have to save up for additional battery packs.
posted by humanfont at 4:13 PM on January 12, 2013