Rodeo is a competitive equestrian sport that arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain and Mexico, expanding throughout the Americas and to other nations. It was originally based on the skills required of the working vaqueros and later, cowboys, in what today is the western United States, western Canada, and northern Mexico. Today, it is a sporting event that involves horses and other livestock, designed to test the skill and speed of the cowboys and cowgirls. American-style professional rodeos generally comprise the following events: tie-down roping, team roping, steer wrestling, saddle bronc riding, bareback bronc riding, bull riding and barrel racing. The events are divided into two basic categories: the rough stock events and the timed events. Depending on sanctioning organization and region, other events such as breakaway roping, goat tying, and pole bending may also be a part of some rodeos. The "world's first public cowboy contest" was held on July 4, 1883, in Pecos, Texas, between cattle driver Trav Windham and roper Morg Livingston.
The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, also called RodeoHouston or abbreviated HLSR, is the largest livestock exhibition and rodeo in the world. It includes one of the richest regular-season professional rodeo events. It has been held at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, since 2003, with the exception of 2021 due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was previously held in the Astrodome. It is considered to be the city's "signature event", much like New Orleans's Mardi Gras, Dallas's Texas State Fair, San Diego's Comic-Con and New York City's New Year's Eve at Times Square.
Blue Rodeo is a Canadian country rock band formed in 1984 in Toronto, Ontario. They have released 16 full-length studio albums, four live recordings, one greatest hits album, and two video/DVDs, along with multiple solo albums, side projects, and collaborations.
A head-mounted display (HMD) is a display device, worn on the head or as part of a helmet, that has a small display optic in front of one or each eye. An HMD has many uses including gaming, aviation, engineering, and medicine. Virtual reality headsets are HMDs combined with IMUs. There is also an optical head-mounted display (OHMD), which is a wearable display that can reflect projected images and allows a user to see through it.
Mad Catz Global Limited is a Chinese company that provides interactive entertainment products marketed under Mad Catz, GameShark and TRITTON. Mad Catz distributes video game products for third-party partners. The company is incorporated in China and Taiwan with headquarters in Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Beyerdynamic GmbH & Co. KG is a German manufacturer of microphones, headphones, wireless audio systems and conference systems. Headquartered in Heilbronn, Germany, Beyerdynamic has been family-owned since its founding in 1924.
First-person view (FPV), also known as remote-person view (RPV), or simply video piloting, is a method used to control a radio-controlled vehicle from the driver or pilot's view point. Most commonly it is used to pilot a radio-controlled aircraft or other type of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The vehicle is either driven or piloted remotely from a first-person perspective via an onboard camera, fed wirelessly to video FPV goggles or a video monitor. More sophisticated setups include a pan-and-tilt gimbaled camera controlled by a gyroscope sensor in the pilot's goggles and with dual onboard cameras, enabling a true stereoscopic view.
Parrot SA is a French wireless products manufacturer company based in Paris, France. It was founded in 1994 by Christine/M De Tourvel, Jean-Pierre Talvard and Henri Seydoux.
Vuzix is an American multinational technology firm headquartered in Rochester, New York. Founded in 1997 by Paul Travers, Vuzix is a supplier of wearable display technology, virtual reality and augmented reality. Vuzix manufactures and sells computer display devices and software. Vuzix personal display devices are used for mobile and immersive augmented reality applications, such as 3D gaming, manufacturing training, and military tactical equipment. On January 5, 2015, Intel acquired 30% of Vuzix's stock for $24.8 million.
Walkera UAVs are micro air vehicles (MAV) developed by Guangzhou Walkera Technology Co., Ltd.. Walkera, founded in 1994, is located at the center of the Pearl River Delta's Panyu District of Guangzhou and is made up of 1500 staff. Traditionally, Walkera is an established Chinese manufacturer of remote control hobby helicopters, but the company has expanded its business to UAVs by starting with MAV production, based on its successful remote-control hobby helicopter business. Most MAVs developed by Walkera are equipped with daytime color TV camera, but none of them are in the helicopter configuration of the usual Walkera remote control models. Most of the multirotors MAV were originally developed for commercial and consumer use, but have been deployed by Chinese military and law enforcement agencies as trainers for more advanced and costly UAVs deployed in longer missions. In 2011, Walkera made famous the first commercially available 6-axis microcopter, called the Ladybird. This number one seller soon caught the attention of various manufacturers and copies of the Ladybird followed.
SZ DJI Technology Co., Ltd. or Shenzhen DJI Sciences and Technologies Ltd. in full, more popularly known as its trade name DJI, which stands for Da-Jiang Innovations, is a Chinese technology company headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, with manufacturing facilities throughout the world. DJI manufactures commercial unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) for aerial photography and videography. It also designs and manufactures camera gimbals, action cameras, camera stabilizers, flight platforms, propulsion systems and flight control systems.
Yuneec International is a Chinese aircraft manufacturer based in Jinxi, Kunshan, a town in Jiangsu owned through an off-shore Cayman Islands holding company, Yuneec Holding Limited. Yuneec was originally a manufacturer of radio-controlled model aircraft and marketed its man-carrying aircraft in the United States through GreenWing International. Yuneec produced the Yuneec International E430, the first electric aircraft designed to be commercially produced, although only prototypes were ever built. In the late 2010s, the company moved to specialize in the development and production of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), for the aerial photography role.
Reality Labs is a business of Meta Platforms that produces virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) hardware and software, including virtual reality headsets such as Quest, and metaverse platforms such as Horizon Worlds. Reality Labs is the corporate successor to Oculus, a company that was founded in 2012 by Palmer Luckey, Brendan Iribe, Michael Antonov and Nate Mitchell to develop a VR headset for video gaming known as the Oculus Rift. Before the acquisition, Oculus raised over $2.4 million for the project via a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter—nearly ten times the original goal of $250,000.
Matt Higgins is an American businessman, and the co-founder and CEO of RSE Ventures, a private investment firm that focuses on sports and entertainment, media and marketing, food and lifestyle, and technology. In 2012, Higgins co-founded RSE with Stephen M. Ross, the founder of Related Companies and owner of the Miami Dolphins. Higgins also serves as an executive for the Dolphins, having previously been a high-level executive with the New York Jets.
Windows Mixed Reality is a platform introduced as part of the Windows 10 and 11 operating system, which provides augmented reality and mixed reality experiences with compatible head-mounted displays.
The Phantom is a series of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) developed by Chinese technology company DJI.
First Person View, or FPV, drone racing, is a sport where participants control "drones", equipped with cameras while wearing head-mounted displays showing the live stream camera feed from the drones. Similar to full size air racing, the goal is to complete a set course as quickly as possible. Drone racing began in Germany in 2011 with a number of amateur pilots getting together for semi-organized races in Karlsruhe.
MultiGP is a global drone racing league that governs and manages radio-controlled drone racing competitions. With over 14,000 members and 544 chapters worldwide, MultiGP is the only drone racing league with clear and available methods for participation and advancement within the league. MultiGP governs and sanctions drone racing events across the world, provides turn-key race production services, and works with groups to grow the sport of drone racing.
The Drone Racing League (DRL) is a professional drone racing league that operates internationally. DRL pilots race view with identical, custom-built drones at speeds above 80 mph through three-dimensional courses. News publication Quartz described DRL as feeling "like from Star Wars" with "hopes [of becoming] the Formula 1, NASCAR and MotoGP of drone racing."
