From what the video doesn't show, it appears that Flyfire is not actually a new display technology, it is just a neat "what if" idea that they turned into a concept video.
The majority of the ML's output is a mix of creative dreams and proof of concept prototypes, rather than new technologies.
Yet I think it serves two useful purposes. (1) Demonstrates commercial potential via inspiring example, (2) Defines an end result clearly enough to become an engineering problem. This may be enough to attract corollary (1) capital / institutional support and (2) motivated talent.
If you read the description, it strongly implies they've got nothing but a plan, and they intend to set out to take steps to demonstrate the possibility of this actually working.
It uses LEDs with PIC processors on each LED, the smart LEDs are then connected to each other in a parallel arrangement I believe. The power to the LEDs is used both as current for the LEDs as well as a data line.
Upon start up the LEDs becon out their unique ID, negotiated by communicating over their data lines. A webcam is then used to detect the position of the LEDs by their ID.
So effectively the chain of LEDs can be arbitrarily scattered, and by detecting the position of the LEDs in 3D space, their software then allows images etc. to be displayed.
Now THAT looks useful, especially the auto-calibration. I like the name similarity too.
I'd suspect the helicopters would bump each other in minor air disturbances, unless they were so far away from each other that they'd be unable to make a dense display.
As much as this would make for a nice concert/show gizmo, I'm also interested in those tiny helicopters themselves. To control them with such precision would be impressive (well from a non specialist point of view). Yet I can't seem to find info about them on either of the labs' sites (this one and the ARES lab). There could be many other use for such swarms (I'm thinking controlling a local set of cameras to get different angles, but I'm sure there are so much more).
I find the surveillance possibilities a lot more interesting- ubiquitous surveillance plus unmanned ground vehicles are going to bring about a sea change in policing and warfare. I can imagine a situation where every major city is under constant video surveillance, the video of which is analyzed in real-time.
After a few years of machine learning I'd imagine it'd be possible to tell when a crime has a high probability of taking place, in which case one of those UGVs is taken over by a human operator. In that way one cop could control 20 different streets, only 'using' one UGV at a time, whenever the analysis algorithms point out a potential problem.
I'm NOT saying this is necessarily a good thing- this basically means the establishment of a police state in every industrialized nation. However, it is all but inevitable, and these kinds of swarming helicopters, now concept, soon a reality, ensure that inevitability.
1. The videos show these flying pixels in a grid using variable output to form images like the Mona Lisa -- but a perhaps more interesting possibility is using them for non-uniform sampling of an image.
Imagine all of them emitting max light output, and having none of them fly in the black areas of the image, and the highest concentration in the brightest areas.
2. This could be a basis for free-floating advertisements or information. Imagine walking around a giant outdoor mall (like the labyrinthine Irvine Spectrum) and having pixels appear above you announcing that the next IMAX 3D showing of Avatar is coming up, forming into a giant floating arrow saying RIGHT THIS WAY and floating towards the theater at walking pace.
I can see how they might use this indoors, but outdoors wind would be a huge problem. I would be interested in knowing a bit more about the capabilities of the mini-helicopters
The majority of the ML's output is a mix of creative dreams and proof of concept prototypes, rather than new technologies.