Floating drone ball brings us on step closer to live-action Quidditch

I am not quite sure about you, but for most of the time, humanity has had their feed grounded. However, Harry Potter’s fantasy world of wizardry has opened up the imaginations of the masses to Quidditch. A recently invented drone has resurrected the possibility of seeing Quidditch introduced in the real world, thanks to engineer Jun Rekimoto who developed a ball that contains a drone within.

Drones aren’t all gloom and doom. Yes, the Air Force has classified stealth drones, and yes, Amazon probably misled us all about package-delivering drones. But there’s a brighter side to drones, and that side could potentially bring us a version of real-life Quidditch that’s getting closer to the version Harry Potter spent so much time playing. Quidditch has two big problems in the physical world. First, people can’t fly on brooms. We’re still working on that one. Secondly, balls tend not to float. Engineer Jun Rekimoto doesn’t seem to hold gravity in the same regard as the rest of us, and he created a ball, with a drone inside, that can hover. Fittingly, it’s called the Hoverball. And not only can it float, it can move in various directions, changing course instantly. The actual ball itself is pretty simple: there’s a micro-quadcopter inside of a plastic shell. At present, this potential golden snitch is remote-controlled, but Rekimoto plans to program them in the future to offer AI-assisted autonomy to the balls.