Look how happy I am in that photo below. Or am I scared? It's hard to tell. Selfie technology just took a new turn, and I'm evidently not quite sure what to make of it. The source of the photo is Zero Zero's Hover Camera. It's a foldable, lightweight, 4K camera drone that we've seen before. The new trick that helped take this picture, is that I just threw the drone up in the air. It then turned around until it recognized me (passing two colleagues along the way) and I just waved at. Boom: awkward selfie.
Hover Camera could already recognize and follow a target. Just previously you had to use the companion app on your phone, and pick out the subject you wanted to follow on screen. With the new feature, you essentially "register" your face via the app once, and then you can forget about the phone. The next time you launch Hover Camera, it will fly in place, turning around until it spots you. Once it has you locked, it'll follow you as before. To grab a selfie, just raise your hand until the front LED flashes, and gives you a three-count.
We've seen selfie drones before, and visual recognition is becoming a more popular way of tracking subjects than GPS. Using the camera to track isn't always as dependable as GPS , but it does solve a few problems. Namely, no need for a separate GPS device (or phone), one less thing to charge, and your chosen target is easier to keep in the center of the shot (GPS doesn't always exactly where you are, but obviously the camera does).
While Zero Zero's working hard to improve the Hover Camera, and keep it ahead of similar products like Dobby (or Kimon), the pocket-friendly drone category still faces other limitations. In general, battery life is fairly short. Expect about 10 minutes of air time from Hover Camera. Though with a charge time of about 40 minutes, it won't be too long until you're back in the air again.
Perhaps a more significant limitation is the camera itself. Most of the small drones I have tested have cameras comparable to those you'd find in a mid-range phone. Zero Zero's 13-megapixel shooter isn't too bad -- images come out looking pretty good -- but it's all still a long way from the pin-sharp, goodness you'd get out of a Phantom 4 Pro, or a GoPro.
There are also general challenges with cramming a lot of software smarts into a small form factor. In our brief demo at the convention center here in Las Vegas, the company representative had to explain away a few minor limitations that meant we couldn't record video and use the recognition feature etc.
Many of these should be sorted by the time the update rolls out in the next few weeks though. At the very least, it's nice to see an existing product getting care and attention after its release. But at $599, the Hover Camera doesn't come cheap, so let's just hope these new features keep on coming.
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