When running back and forth between South Hall and West Hall at E3, it can sometimes be quicker to avoid the mass of people and cut through the outside area behind the Los Angeles Convention Center. This is, essentially, an outside concourse and usually is filled with food vendors, smaller companies and indie games, smokers seeking a nicotine fix and a few other people hoping to quickly get from one end of the convention center to the other. Usually, this is a reasonably quick path. Occasionally, however, there is something that might cause you to linger a while and check it out. Parrot's A. R. Drone, for example, was too interesting to rush past. Luckily, however, Parrot was open for demonstrations before the show floor even opened... I guess there are perks to being outside, after all.

This adept four-rotor helicopter features approximately 11 minutes of flight time on a single 2-hour charge; for longer play, you can buy additional batteries. One of the coolest features of the A.R. Drone is that it has a video camera and streams a first-person view back to your iPhone or other device, letting you fly it as it you were, well, flying it. The folks at Parrot have created the iPhone interface, but they have made the API open-source, so developers are free to create interfaces to any other devices they feel like, as well as to create full-fledged games or other more specific software that integrates with the A.R. Drone, rather than merely a direct-control interface.

The A.R. Drone ships with two cover-shells, a protective shell featuring a four-circle design which helps to protect the rotors and a very small plastic shell that leaves the rotors open. The protective shell is made of a compressed styrofoam which protects rotors and passers-by from each other, but adds a bit of weight and wind resistance. This configuration is intended for indoor flight and playing in close quarters. The lightweight, streamlined body allows faster movement and turning and, I can only surmise, possibly slightly longer play time per charge, due to its reduced weight.

When I first came face to face with the A.R. Drone, I couldn't help conjuring up visions of the hovering automated guns from Terminator 2. Possibly the aspect that most helps to elicit that feeling of eeriness is the Drone's ability to maintain a steady position when simply hovering and to turn on a dime without otherwise shifting position. On-board, the A.R. Drone has what appears to be ultrasonic proximity/distance sensors to help it actively maintain a constant height, along with an accelerometer to record sudden movements (such as bumping into something or being pushed) and be able to actively "reverse" those actions to maintain an impressively consistent hovering position when not being told to move, as you can see in the footage above.

As for safety, the A.R. Drone senses when any of the four rotors comes in contact with something (other than air) and instantly stops all of the rotors. This reduces the chance of causing damage to the Drone's rotors or things it comes in contact with, but, as you might imagine, when this bird stops flying, it falls. Its light weight should stop it from being an overly destructive force, but you might want to avoid killing the rotors above glass keepsakes.

Parrot's A.R. Drone will be available for purchase in the US at selected retailers in September 2010 in the United States for a suggested retail price of $299 USD. Availability dates and price in Europe and Asia will be announced soon after E3. For more info, visit the official A.R. Drone website.