Heads up, Kimye, your ultimate selfie camera is here. Well, it's actually a wearable drone that launches with a flick of the wrist and whizzes through the air on a mission to deliver its owner the perfect selfie.
That's the idea behind Nixie, a wrist-worn drone that has reached the finals of Intel's Make It Wearable Challenge.
Yes, Nixie is a quadcopter that wraps its arms around the wrist of users until wearers are ready to deploy it. It will follow it owners and take video, if it ends up making it into production.
"With traditional cameras, shooters have to interrupt the moment to take pictures, and the controls require manual manipulations," states the Intel Creators Project. "Nixie puts you front and center in your photos and videos -- without requiring your hands, or your attention. From selfies to panoramas to continuous movies, Nixie offers preset modes for any on-the-go situation."
Nixie sets your camera free, says the project's creators. Without a friendly passer-by to work the camera for a few shots, capturing amazing moments consists of snapping shots of the landscape to accompany's awkward self portraits that are often filled with forearms.
"There are moments we want to share and remember," Nixie states. "Imagine a camera that goes past your arm's reach. Imagine a camera that gives you a new perspective. Image a camera that follows you. Imagine a camera, that sets you free."
The prototype is still being tweaked, but the developers want the final project to unfold and launch on command.
"You should be able, with a gesture, to tell the quadcopter to unfold," says Christoph Kohstall, one of Nixie's developers. "Then it's going to take off from your wrist; it knows where you are. It turns around, takes a picture of you, and comes back. You can catch it from the air and put it back on your wrist."
Nixie and the nine other Make It Wearable finalists were awarded $50,000, but Intel will give $500,000 to the grand finalist in the Nov. 2-3 finals. Here's a look at the 10 finalists for the Make It Wearable Challenge.
Some of the other Make It Wearable Finalists include BabyBe, a mattress that exchanges haptic feedback between newborns and mothers; First V1sion's, a first-person broadcast system for athletes; vumbl's sports necklace; and Open Bionics' low-cost robotic hand.
"The top 10 finalists were just selected and range from creators pushing towards wearable-focused health care innovations, to ideas that could evolve sports analysis and entertainment," states the Creators Project. "Facing a star-packed panel of industry luminaries, a talented team of faculty from UC Berkeley, and the mentors they've been working with to design their revolutionary technologies, these 10 teams are leading the wearable movement into its next frontier."
Watch a Nixie concept video below:
