If you own a DJI Mavic Pro, Phantom 4 series or Inspire series drone, there's now a new way of putting yourself "in the pilot's seat" of the aircraft. The company has announced the upcoming availability of its DJI Goggles, which among other things allow users to steer their drone via head movements.
As with other FPV (first-person-view) systems, the goggles display video streamed live from the drone's onboard camera. By bypassing the controller and receiving video straight from the drone, latency is kept down to as little as 110 milliseconds.
Each of the goggles' two screens has a resolution of 1920 x 1080p. As DJI points out, this provides more than twice the amount of pixels as a typical 2K display – it's claimed to be like viewing a 216-inch home cinema screen from about 3 meters (9.8 ft) away. Users can switch between frame rates of 720p/60fps, or 1080p/30fps when in close range.
The screens can be quickly flipped up out of the way, allowing users to watch their drone from the ground (or to otherwise look around at their surroundings) without removing the goggles entirely. Functions such as ActiveTrack, TapFly, Terrain Follow, Cinematic Mode and Tripod Mode, however, can be accessed without having to look down at the user's smartphone. Instead, a touchpad on the side of the goggles lets users switch between those modes, displaying confirmations on the goggles' screens.
Additionally, using the OcuSync wireless transmission system, it's possible for two sets of the goggles to simultaneously receive video from a single Mavic Pro. And as mentioned, utilizing the Head Tracking feature, users can control the yaw of the drone – turning their head left turns the aircraft left, turning it right results in a right-hand turn, and straightening their head stops the turn.
Alternatively, it's also possible to simply control the drone's camera gimbal using head movements. In this case, the hand-held controller would still be used to steer – it's even possible that one person could steer while another (wearing the goggles) ran the camera.
One full charge of the battery should be good for up to six hours of use. As an added bonus, via their HDMI input, the goggles can also be used for things like watching movies or playing video games.
DJI Goggles should start shipping on May 20th, and are priced at US$449. They can be seen in use, in the video below.
Source: DJI