Yay! I've been on about wanting exactly this for about 3 years! I was thinking that rather than using a fixed viewpoint, it should be able to track, pan and zoom creatively, completely automatically. So where could it get algorithms to do that? Video games! They've been doing it for years.
Brian M
Probably illegal to use in his way in most counties. Its a drone and has to meet the local aviation laws, which are quite sensible in the UK - Basically you need a pilot in control or at least someone observing it and able to take manual control. A person taking part in another activity clearly cannot be the pilot. This is a potentially dangerous device and could do harm to the whole drone industry if it gets produced, Perhaps if it was modified to track the target of the photo shoot with someone else as the pilot then that would be safe and probably get a better shot anyway!
Mel Tisdale
The more devices such as this join the GPS club along with vehicle navigation aids and the like, the more temptation there will be for some to get their fun from jamming the GPS signal and watching the mayhem that results. One hopes that the more the tendency for that to happen, the more impetus there will be to develop systems hardened to such eventualities. It might be fun for some sad individuals to watch a drone such as this fall from the sky because it doesn't know where it is, or some autonomous road vehicle turn into a side road that isn't where it thinks it is, but can the same be said for messing up the navigation and docking of an LNG carrier or cruise liner? Causing car crashes is bad enough, but potentially destroying a whole LNG terminal or putting a cruise liner on the rocks, both with potentially great loss of life, is an entirely different matter. I am told that one can purchase GPS jammers on Ebay.
iperov
how about radar to detect trees and aboid them?
OriginalJAHT
Just wait until the ski slopes of the world buzz to the sound drones following people snowplough their way to the bottom. With the lack of collision avoidance I'm sure many will be lost to trees or colliding with other drones.
That said this, is very cool and I want one!
flylowguy
Cool item, but wouldn't they need some accurate mapping for terrain avoidance? What about other drones, unmapped poles, signs, cables, trees?
Rich Melton
This is an awesome invention that people should be jumping on board with. Think of the jobs behind, and fun uses for this, it's a real economy boosting invention... So why all the asinine comments and naysayers shooting it down..?
... No wonder the world is so slow in bringing the future to the here and now. We have the technology, we have the ability, but we're always held back by under educated morons, with ignorant opinions and ideas, - Yet very loud mouths, gigantic egos, and they seem to be helplessly compelled to have their say and do their best to make sure that, no one, is enjoying their life, in any other way that the naysayers deem acceptable. In a nutshell... Haters gotta hate.. they just can't help it.
Keep on innovating, inventing, challenging, and changing this world... It won't improve by itself.
Ryan Gibbons
Why all the pessimism. Autonomously guided personal drones are the beginning of a revolution in robotics, making it cheaper for everyone! everything worth doing has positive and negative uses, depending on the user of the tool. No need to be a Ludite about it.
Leon Domowski
Check out this project, it looks very similar but with far more features and promises to deliver much sooner
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/airdog/airdog-worlds-first-auto-follow-action-sports-dron
It looks more professional also, but that's imo. [Ed. note – You can see our article on the AirDog here: http://www.gizmag.com/airdog-auto-follow-action-sports-drone/32576/ ]