Outside the Box Thinking: The Flying Orb

What happens when you embed a miniature flying drone inside a ball? Or more precisely, when you mount a lightweight miniature drone inside a ball-shaped frame that allows air to pass through so the drone’s rotors can work?

What you get is a bit of modern magic that lets you play catch with yourself. Meet the Flying Orb Ball Hover Toy, or “the boomerang ball”, the concept of which is demonstrated in the following short video (HT: Core77):

Versions of this technological wonder are available at retailers like Amazon and Walmart. And like many modern tech-based toys, it has a rechargeable battery.

That brings us to the downside of this new technology. It takes 25 minutes to charge up one of these flying orbs to get about 10 minutes of play time from it. So for you and your kids to get maximum entertainment from these devices, you would have to buy several, as we suspect their makers and retailers are hoping you might.

If you take that plunge, you might also think about getting one of those ball bags that baseball umpires use, which of course, are sold separately.