[B]AR Drone: Is it a videogame, a remote-controlled helicopter or the greatest advance in augmented reality since the [URL=http://vimeo.com/4233057]Living Bigfoot[/URL]? Well, it's all three, if reports from CES in Las Vegas are true.[/B]

The AR Drone is a real, albeit 11-ounce, helicopter with four whirling blades that keep the craft aloft. The fun starts when you download an app that turns your iPhone into a motion-sensitive remote control. Tilting the phone changes your direction and speed, but the best part is that the app displays video fed by a camera on the drone and superimposes monsters and enemy fighter planes on top of it.

Cristina Sanz, VP of marketing at Parrot, which makes the AR Drone, giddily told the [URL=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/ces/6939359/CES-2010-the-most-awesome-iPhone-video-game.html]Telegraph[/URL] that "kids spend ages in front of a computer or TV screen playing games and this gets them off their seats and chasing the drone around the backyard or sitting room...This is surely every kid's dream game made real."

While it may not accomplish the surgical separation of couch and ass that Sanz celebrates, the AR Drone sure looks like fun. The interesting twist is that Parrot has built an SDK so that any developer can build games for the augmented reality toy.

AR Drone will go on sale in the UK this summer for about £300 (roughly US$500)

[url=http://www.gameculture.com/2010/01/08/remote-control-helicopter-augmented-reality-iphone-app-debuts-ces]More...[/url]