PresentersBre Pettis: Kite Aerial Photography

Bre will share his kite aerial photography rigs and give you hints on how to avoid knocking someones head off with a pound and a half of payload attached to a long string.

• Bre's video for MAKE Magazine
• Kite Aerial Photoset - Cal Anderson Park
• Kite Aerial Photoset - Gasworks Park

Bre Pettis makes things and then makes videos of them for MAKE: Magazine.

Peter Brown and Juice Box: The Assimilator Project

The goal was to enable people to have a first-person perspective of being 500 feet in the air, without the pesky need to get in a helicopter or air plane. The project used simple off the shelf wireless video equipment, LCD video goggles, lots of string, and a large helium balloon. Put on the goggles and see what the balloon would see as it rises and falls. The project got an art grant from Ignition Northwest for its maiden voyage at Critical Massive and was taken to Burning Man this summer.

Peter Brown is a software entrepreneur working on web technologies in Seattle. This is his first "art" project.

Ryan Weh and Brad Larsen: Radio-Controlled Blimp-Mounted Camera

Brad and Ryan have been interested in radio control flying toys for a very long time. They'd always enjoyed the thought of getting aerial videos from a radio control airplane, and only fairly recently come up with a working setup that satisfies their basic objectives, even though they have been slowly working on the problem of sending up a wireless camera from an airship for some time. In fact, the camera part turned out to be easy and relatively cheap, but the biggest holdup was in finding a way to view or record the video from the ground (or both), on the field with minimal backup power. At the meeting they'll talk about the issues that they came across when trying the various camera systems, and how they converged onto the solution that they are using now. They will also cover some other issues with using the camera itself, such as some basic vibration damping advice.

Brad Larsen is an industrial designer and an inventor with his name on various patents. He currently develops toy airplanes new pepper grinders and other inventions.

Ryan Weh is a student in Physics at the UW. He has a personal website, and hosts a forum for Bill Beaty's Amasci website.

Open Dork / Show and Tell

YOU!!! Yes, if you have a project - any project, at any stage of completeness, an idea - any idea, at any stage of bakedness, an artwork - any kind of artwork at any stage of doneness, please do bring it along to the dorkbot meeting and claim your 10 minutes worth of fame after the presenters.