Whether taking aerial photos, delivering books, or flipping through the air for fun, quadrotor drones are now more popular than ever. At the same time, developers are continually experimenting with new ways to control them. Here are four videos from Leap Motion developers who hacked quadrotors to create touchless motion-controlled flying machines.

The earliest experiments started in late 2012, when developers around the world climbed aboard our early beta program. Within 24 hours of firing up their new device, the engineers at LabVIEW Hacker created a Leap Motion-enabled quadrotor that flew around their office:

But what if you could control a quadrotor through your browser? Nick Nisi created a simple web app that allowed him to control the machine through a wifi connection. Watch how Nick can circle his finger to make the rotor flip in the air, and tap his index finger to make it land:

At the latest RobotsConf, one of the winning entries was this Leap Motion-enabled flying copter, created by daughter-father team Sylvia and James. Sylvia is 12 years old and the creator of Sylvia’s Super-Awesome Maker Show, where she makes everything from cardboard periscopes to little robots. In the video below, you can see Sylvia controlling the copter that she hacked with her father:

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Finally, the impressively moustached Chris Matthieu hooked up his quadcopter to SkyNet – an ominously named messaging system for the Internet of Things. This makes it possible for someone to control an army of hovering quadrotors. Fortunately, Matthieu was able to catch his quadrotor before it managed to escape and start the machine revolt:

Want to see more of our developer community’s robotic escapades? From quadrotors and little humanoid robots to 3D-printed arms and six-legged space rovers, they’re reaching out to control machines of all shapes and sizes. You can see more highlights from our trip to RobotsConf on our developer blog, and follow us on Twitter to stay posted on the latest community experiments.