A bunch of mini-helicopters could well create a huge 3-D display.

Flying mechanical fireflies may well become a new kind of 3-D display, say researchers at MIT .

The project, which was called Flyfire , will use radio-controlled models of helicopters, like those currently sold in toy stores.

“Each of the helicopters will behave in such a way that we can call it a smart pixel,” says Ron Kang, a lead specialist for the Flyfire project from MIT. "By controlling their movement, we get the pixels flying in the air."
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According to Kang, the idea is still at the earliest theoretical stage. Researchers from MIT's SENSEable City Lab, Aerospace Robotics and Embedded Systems Lab have joined forces to develop this technology.

On traditional displays, pixels are fixed and located on a flat surface. The search for technology to create fully three-dimensional displays has been going on for a long time, but not so many practical solutions have appeared, despite decades of efforts by scientists.

MIT employees are willing to bet that every “pixel” can float in the air, it can be controlled, and they can create a giant 3-D screen.

Ultimately, the project can be a step in the direction of "intellectual dust" - a technology from a variety of computer devices that are extremely small, to some extent constitute a closed system of small controlled objects and are located in the space around us.
An image made of small glowing helicopters can take both two-dimensional and three-dimensional form.

Currently, scientists are trying to construct these small helicopters, which will play the role of pixels. Kang says that now a team of researchers is searching for mini-helicopters with four propellers.

It would seem that the idea is simple, but the creation of an army of helicopters poses serious technical questions. For example, each of the devices must be self-stabilizing. This means that during the flight they will have to maintain their position in space with extreme accuracy for at least a few minutes.
Another problem is that you need to somehow control all these thousands of helicopters.

“Today, we can simultaneously control some handful of mini-helicopters, however at Flyfire our goal is to increase this number many times,” explained Emilio Frazzoli, head of ARES Lab.

Flyfire is intended to be a “setup” for public spaces where pixels can move through the air again and again every few minutes. So far, a team of researchers has tried to bring the idea to life and start making real devices in the near future.

Here is a video revealing the essence of the technology: