Disney’s “Flixel” Drone will Replace Fireworks

With the wrangling over whether it’s safe to fly a drone through fireworks (http://www.wired.com/2015/07/youre-thinking-flying-drone-fireworks/), Disney thought about the idea from a different angle. Their patent application mentions how dangerous fireworks can be, and a swarm of drones with lampshades is not. If you thought about flying your Phantom through fireworks was ballsy, try it with a swarm of Flixels. It might feel like piloting the Millennium Falcon through a flaming asteroid belt.

Here is an exert from the application: “Each of these UAVs with its display payload may be thought of as a floating pixel or “flixel” that when combined provides a very large display screen or aerial display that may be three dimensional and may change over time as the UAVs move in the display air space and as the payloads operate to change their display (e.g., change color).”

Week upon week, each Flixel^TM (US Serial No. 86035816) will follow GPS waypoints, flashing various colors. The Flixels will arrange themselves in various patterns to simulate fireworks or to spell out words.

Claim 1 (the important one) is very vague and broad, and if they get this patent the way they filed it, they may corner the market for this idea.

Title: “AERIAL DISPLAY SYSTEM WITH FLOATING PIXELS”

US Patent Application Publication No: 20140374535

Filed (USA): Feb 15, 2013

Published: December 25, 2014