Spiri - Autonomous Quadcopter on Kickstarter - Innovation or Scam?

[j2d3]

I stumbled upon this browsing kickstarter, and I was pretty excited, and then I read this techcrunch article with a kind of - weird comment - and - anyway I just wonder if HN has any strong opinions on this particular company / product idea:

Kickstarter link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/914887915/spiri

Techcrunch article with nasty comment: http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/14/spiri-kickstarter/

[fallingmeat]

I think there is a need for more platforms that isolate the 'mission systems' parts from the flight controls systems. There are tons of applications that should not require developers to become a controls engineer to implement.

[j2d3]

Yes, I agree. That's a large part of why I found this particular quadcopter project attractive. I am interested in a fairly specific project that is much more about how the quadcopter is used than about the science of keeping it stable, aloft, and responsive.

[j2d3]

I was pretty close to contributing to this kickstarter, and the comment is at odds with what I could find about the guy whose company it is (a Canadian guy who seems pretty interesting), following his personal links, etc. That comment on techcrunch really bothered me, though.

The guy's name is Patrick Edwards-Daughtery and this is his personal site:

http://secretvespers.com/