The best Super Bowl halftime shows leave indelible memories, be it a notorious wardrobe malfunction, that goofy Left Shark, or every last second of Beyoncé’s two appearances. It’s too soon to say whether anything Lady Gaga did tonight will resonate, but at least she offered something new: An army of dancing drones, ducking and dodging over the Houston skyline, transforming from stars to a fluttering flag.
It’s probably the first time you’ve seen 300 drones flying in formation, but it’s almost certainly not the last. The technology underpinning the Intel Shooting Star drone system is fascinating in and of itself, but its potential applications are even more so. The same drones that accompanied Lady Gaga will one day revolutionize search-and-rescue, agriculture, halftime shows, and more.
First, though, let’s focus on the fun stuff.
Performing for a global audience of about 160 million or so people represents this drone platform’s biggest stage, but Intel has done this before. The company’s Shooting Star drone squad recently finished a three-week run at Disney World, and last year 500 synchronized drones flew in Sydney, setting the highly specific world record for “most unmanned aerial vehicles airborne simultaneously.”
Each drone is about a foot long square, weighs just over eight ounces, and sports a plastic and foam body to soften inadvertent impacts. They aren’t as flashy as consumer quadcopters, which is just as well, because you’re not supposed to notice them. Instead, you’re supposed to notice the four billion color combinations created by the onboard LEDs, and the aerial acrobatics choreographed with meticulous coding.
Each drone communicates wirelessly with a central computer to execute its dance routine, oblivious to what the hundreds of machines around it are doing. The system can adapt on the, er, fly, too. Just before showtime, the computer checks the battery level and GPS signal strength of each drone, and assigns roles accordingly. Should a drone falter during the show, a reserve unit takes over within seconds.
All of which is pretty cool in its own right. But making it work for the biggest television event of the year takes a whole different level of planning.
Student of Super Bowl security measures and FAA regulations may by this point have some questions. The government strictly forbids drones within 34.5 miles of Houston’s NRG Stadium, after all, and the FAA limits on how high drones can fly in any circumstance, let alone above 80,000 or so people. How on earth did Intel get away with it?
The short answer is, it taped the show earlier this week.
The long answer is worth exploring though, because it provides insight into the evolution of Shooting Star system and where it might go from here.
Preparations kicked off in early December, when Intel’s engineers started wading into the mind-numbing logistics of choreographing 300 dancing drones. Do they fly inside the stadium? How are they integrated into what Lady Gaga is doing onstage? Is the stadium’s domed roof open or closed? “The whole halftime is a huge execution monster of an exercise,” says Anil Nanduri, who leads Intel’s drone efforts.
Once Intel and the Super Bowl creative team understood the restraints, they started storyboarding the show, settling on a sparkling array of stars that culminates in one giant, glittering, fluttering flag effect. Oh, and also the Pepsi logo, which was at least blue if not red and white.
It was a brief performance, and secondary to Gaga’s onstage glitter and glam. Pulling it off, though, was a feat. The team required a dispensation from the feds—an especially tricky task given that NRG Stadium sits within Houston Hobby Airport’s air traffic control jurisdiction, and that Intel and the NFL had just weeks to put it all together.Synchronized programmable drones are entertaining for sure, and you can see them providing a wow factor like fireworks. They’re easier to control, allow for more elaborate effects, and are reusable. But the technology offers far more practical, and potentially life-saving, applications.
“I see them searching for a lost hiker with multiple drones at night with the right payloads looking for them,” says Nanduri. “Or search and rescue efforts after a landslide, when it’s hard to get people on the ground.”
There are commercial applications, too. Instead of sending humans to inspect hazardous areas of, say, a construction site, send a few dozen drones. And what better way to inspect hectares of crops than to outsource it to a fleet of quadcopters?
All of this is at least a few away, though, and not just because of the technological limitations. FAA regulations, for instance, require that drone operators to maintain a line of sight with their charges, which makes it hard to deploy them in collapsed buildings or remote areas. And individually programmed drones may prove less effective than smart drones that can “think.” READ MORE…
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Lady Gaga singing Born This Way at the biggest straight event of the year, in the middle of Trump’s presidency is literally the definition of SHE DID THAT (via @hausofcoralcunt)

The hidden statement in Gaga’s glitzy halftime show.
When Lady Gaga was announced as the performer of this year’s Super Bowl halftime show, many of her fans were curious if the singer would get political during her 13-minute set. But it’s possible that Gaga actually managed to sneak in a fairly subversive political moment without most viewers noticing.
NFL senior VP of programming Mark Quenzel told Billboard of Gaga’s plans: “We have no discussions about her or with her that have to do with the election, or the president. What we say to every artist, very clearly, and they all buy in: the Super Bowl halftime is the biggest musical event of the year, and it’s also a communal event for fans, the Super Bowl itself. People get together as families, as friends. It’s a unifying day for people built around the biggest sporting event in the world.”
Gaga herself responded to that remark with this: “Well, I don’t know if I will succeed in unifying America. You’ll have to ask America when it’s over. But the only statements that I’ll be making during the halftime show are the ones that I’ve been consistently making throughout my career. … I believe in a passion for inclusion. I believe in the spirit of equality, and the spirit of this country as one of love and compassion and kindness. So my performance will have both those philosophies.”
All that said, Gaga opened her set with “God Bless America“ and then immediately segued into Woody Guthrie’s Americana classic “This Land Is Your Land”—which, if you’ve ever heard the full version, is a little edgier than you might expect. It has also become an anthem for protestors fighting against Trump’s proposed immigration bans and border walls. The lyrics, in full, read:
This land is your land
This land is my land From California to the New York island; From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters This land was made for you and Me.
As I was walking that ribbon of highway, I saw above me that endless skyway: I saw below me that golden valley: This land was made for you and me.
I’ve roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts; And all around me a voice was sounding: This land was made for you and me.
When the sun came shining, and I was strolling, And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling, As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting: This land was made for you and me.
As I went walking I saw a sign there And on the sign it said “No Trespassing.” But on the other side it didn’t say nothing, That side was made for you and me.
In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people, By the relief office I seen my people; As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking Is this land made for you and me?
Nobody living can ever stop me, As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back This land was made for you and me.
According to Guthrie’s son, Arlo, Woody wrote the song in anger as a response to “God Bless America,” written by Irving Berlin, which Guthrie hated. We don’t often sing the latter, angrier verses of This Land in schools—nor did Gaga during the show. But as Arlo told The New Yorker in 2004: “He wanted me to know what he originally wrote, so it wouldn’t be forgotten.” The New Yorker further explains Guthrie’s political evolution:
Beyoncé once turned down a Coldplay collaboration http://www.ew.com/article/2016/02/08/chris-martin-beyonce-coldplay-collaboration?xid=IFT-Section Music at @EW
Beyonce and Chris Martin perform during the Pepsi Super Bowl 50 Halftime Show at Levi’s Stadium on February 7, 2016 in Santa Clara, California.
Beyonce performs during the Pepsi Super Bowl 50 Halftime Show at Levi’s Stadium on February 7, 2016 in Santa Clara, California.
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