This is a pretty cool story. Two days ago, big-mountain snowboarder Xavier Delarue launched a kickstarter campaign for his newly founded drone company, HEXO. The Hexo+ drone is an incredible little machine designed to take the skill and complications out of drone filming. Using smartphone based software and tracking, you can easily set up a shot exactly how you want it and then the drone will automatically follow and track you - all the while using hi-tech motion and stabilization algorithms to make sure the shot is near perfect. Amazing!
With a modest goal of $50,000 the HEXO team must be a bit more than pleasantly surprised to see their raised funds quickly approaching half a million dollars only two days into the campaign! It's no huge surprise, as the drone industry is growing as quick as can be and for those following the industry, this product is a natural next step for smaller drones. In fact, the technology inside these babies has existed for over three years, but of course like most things there's a big difference between technology existing and someone packaging it into a cute little toy everyone can understand.
Use your iPhone to set up the shot - above - and then let the drone follow you while you shred, surf, moto, whatever - below - BAM!
Check out this amazing project on their Kickstarter page - there are still a few kits left at some amazing early-bird prices.
Of course this brings up a ton of other issues no one seems to be talking about, yet. What happens when two kids with these things show up in the skatepark and start rolling around? The makers are clear in that these things have zero obstacle avoidance built-in, for now at least. And then there's the issue of getting hit by one. With four blades spinning at thousands of RPMs, there a lot of damage to be done, And there are new drone laws being passed daily so I guess we'll have to see where this all goes.
But for now ... let's get droning!
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