There’s
now a new Trend towards having personal Drones that can Replay you everywhere
you go, Zedenya Style. I’d like to highlight one today that oddly enough, is
already on its way towards achieving Kickstarter superstardom, the AirDog,
which bills itself as the World’s First Auto-follow Drone for GoPro Camera as
stated in “AirDog
tracking Drone could be the ultimate GoPro sidekick”, published June 16th
2014 by Chris Welch, The Verge.
 |
Designed
by Helico out of Palo Alto, California, the premise behind this Kickstarter
project is so simple, I’ll probably only spend 2 pages explaining this. And
it’s already set to be a success!
As
of Wednesday July 25th 2014, the AirDog
has some 512 backers who have pledged JA$437,743, clearly surpassing their
initial goal of JA$200,000. With thirty (30) days left till the end of
Saturday, July 26th 2014 1:04 am EDT, most of the early-bird offers
are gone, meaning you'll have to wait until November 2014 in order to get an AirDog.
This
is yet another Christmas 2014 present for the Extreme Sports Enthusiast in your
life, assuming he or she already owns a Go-Pro Camera. The AirDog
is really a flying attachment for the Action Cam, making me wonder why you
would want to have one if the GoPro can already be attached to your helmet!
AirDog personal Drone –
Action Selfie-Drone with an attachment for a GoPro Camera
Basically
it’s a small Quadcopter (That’s four propellers) that has a mounting bracket
for your GoPro Camera as described in “Meet AirDog, An Action Sports Drone
For Your GoPro Camera”, published June 16, 2014, by Steve O'Hear, TechCrunch.
It
has a max flying speed of 40 km/h but at that speeds it only stays aloft for
about 10 minutes. 20 minutes is what you can get from this 4lb Drone flying at
slower running speeds, which makes the retail price of US$1,500.come November
2014 look like a steal as pointed out in “AIRDOG
AUTO-FOLLOW DRONE PROMISES GREAT VIDEO SHOOTS FOR ADRENALINE JUNKIES”,
published June 17, 2014 By Trevor Mogg, DigitalTrends. But I guess the Video tells a more awesome
story!
Once
set to one of six (6) filming modes, the AirDog
will follow you wherever you go, with the modes being an obvious giveaway as to
what they do:
1.
Auto-follow
2.
Circle
3.
Follow track.
4.
Hover and Aim
5.
Look down
6.
Relative position follow
Filmmakers
and Extreme sports enthusiasts will love this device, as basically follows you
via the AirLeash Tracker, an oversized wristwatch looking device that you strap
to your wrist that the algorithm in the AirDog
is programmed to keep in focus.
The
reason for using a specially designed controller, the AirLeash, instead of an
App on a smartphone has to do with the limited range of Bluetooth 4.0, usually
50 m and the inaccurate GPS, which for the AirDog
needs to be more accurate to follow you at a maximum distance of 1000 feet.
 |
US$1,195
sounds like a very high cost to pay for a Drone, making me wonder if I couldn’t
just build one myself. Also the battery life needs to be extendable for the
foldable Drone. Now that they’ve surpassed their funding goal on their way
towards the end of funding on Saturday, July 26th 2014 1:04 am EDT,
they can possibly spend the extra money.
They
can either improve the Battery life or add some Solar Panels for trickle
charging and extended flight time measured in hours, not days. Also a smaller
AirLeash would be nice too, as that look like it’ll get my wrists very sweaty
and soaked with water trapped in the ingress between my skin and its metal or
plastic outer shell.
Still
if an overpriced Electronic dog is your thing, then the AirDog
can help you to play a pricey game of fetch!
Here’s the link to the AirDog KickStarter
Page:
No comments:
Post a Comment