en dan… TOPGUN!

hardware design in the real world by Amanda Wozniak.

Recently I have become addicted to the sport of radio-controlled combat slope gliders. Here’s an example video of the sort of thing we do. We fly these nearly indestructible flying wing design gliders in ridge lift and attempt to crash them in mid-air and put the other gliders down while flying away unscathed. It is incredibly fun but surprisingly difficult to make the planes hit even when everyone is cooperating. The problem is that binocular depth perception is normally only effective at distances up to about 30 feet whereas glider combat tends to happen in the 100 to 200 foot range. To rectify this problem I am attempting to design and build a head mounted system of mirrors that increases the effective distance in which the pilot’s binocular depth perception is still effective. Here are a couple photos of the first version of my device which worked surprisingly well.

from http://www.superliminal.com/stereo/