Taking Autism To The Sky (TATTS): Aerial HD Video - Now THAT'S a way to see the world

Last weekend we finally were able to fly the hexarotor with HD video onboard. The kids loved it, and I think the parents did as well! The video is 1080 resolution and looks absolutely fantastic on a big LCD/plasma flat screen. Wow. All that remains regarding equipment is adding the real time video and goggles. I'm convinced that this will be an immersive experience that will really impact them. One step at a time though.

With the equipment in place, we could finally begin getting at our goal of giving the kids concrete examples of perspective taking. We started the session talking about what a bird sees from the air. The kids had great ideas that ranged from trees, mice and even us, to clouds, other birds, houses and cars. We also talked about what we should do while our bird (i.e., the hexarotor) is in the air and we agreed upon both 'playing dead' and using our bodies to make an arrow on the ground. The Harlem Shake was a distant third.

Following the discussion, the kids were asked to draw a picture of what they thought the area we were in would look like from the air. After flying, we returned home to watch the stunning HD video. The kids then drew another picture to show what they now understood the area to look like. The before and after pictures really showcase what they learned from flying.

Here are 4 BEFORE maps and several pictures. Some have pretty good detail about what they might see while others are highly focused on a particular thing (e.g, the human arrow) or broad generalizations.

Here are a few AFTER maps. It was fun to watch their reactions when seeing the video. They all picked out different things. There were a good many oohhs and aahhs as well. Note that after flying, we see the presence of the horizon, lots of trees, and an extensive level of detail throughout. Some kids were not in the mood to draw but we heard similiar things from them as the watched the video.