by Ben Popper
Jan 24, 2017
Hagay Klein has been an orthodontist in Israel for 10 years, but he would be happy never to see the inside of a patients mouth again. “I hated it,” he admitted recently, during a visit to The Verge’s office in New York. “I would work one day a week and spend the other six building things.”
Klein was big into model aircraft and spent months constructing an intricate marble clock. Eventually he was bitten by the drone bug, and came up with an idea for a drone he thinks anyone, no matter their comfort level with aircraft, would be happy to own.
THE THINNEST DRONE I’VE EVER SEEN
The Selfly drone is 9mm thick, and snaps into a phone case that fits onto the back of most modern smartphones. With the case on, you can still slide your phone in and out of most pockets, making it much simpler to always have an aerial camera on hand.
Like the Dobby drone we saw at CES, the Selfly can take off and land in the palm of your hand. It hovers in place and can be controlled by your phone. You can capture 8-megapixel stills and 1080p video at 30 frames per second. Its battery lasts about five minutes, which Klein believes should be enough for a night of selfies.
LIMITED BATTERY AND A LOW PRICE
The Selfly camera is not as nice as the one you find on Dobby or the Hover Cam, but it’s smaller than both those units (and at $99, it’s also several hundred dollars cheaper). I’m not convinced that selfie drones are actually a thing many consumers will want, but this is definitely the year we’ll find out, as there are lots of different approaches to this use case hitting the market.
The Selfly is available for preorder today on Kickstarter. As always, remember that mass-producing hardware is tough, so pledge at your own risk.
Hagay Klein has been an orthodontist in Israel for 10 years, but he would be happy never to see the inside of a patients mouth again. “I hated it,” he admitted recently, during a visit to The Verge’s office in New York. “I would work one day a week and spend the other six building things.”
Klein was big into model aircraft and spent months constructing an intricate marble clock. Eventually he was bitten by the drone bug, and came up with an idea for a drone he thinks anyone, no matter their comfort level with aircraft, would be happy to own.
THE THINNEST DRONE I’VE EVER SEEN
The Selfly drone is 9mm thick, and snaps into a phone case that fits onto the back of most modern smartphones. With the case on, you can still slide your phone in and out of most pockets, making it much simpler to always have an aerial camera on hand.
Like the Dobby drone we saw at CES, the Selfly can take off and land in the palm of your hand. It hovers in place and can be controlled by your phone. You can capture 8-megapixel stills and 1080p video at 30 frames per second. Its battery lasts about five minutes, which Klein believes should be enough for a night of selfies.
LIMITED BATTERY AND A LOW PRICE
The Selfly camera is not as nice as the one you find on Dobby or the Hover Cam, but it’s smaller than both those units (and at $99, it’s also several hundred dollars cheaper). I’m not convinced that selfie drones are actually a thing many consumers will want, but this is definitely the year we’ll find out, as there are lots of different approaches to this use case hitting the market.
The Selfly is available for preorder today on Kickstarter. As always, remember that mass-producing hardware is tough, so pledge at your own risk.
No comments:
Post a Comment