Spending hours editing the best bits of your cross-country bike trip into a three-minute video is not nearly as fun as shooting and watching the footage itself. Now there's a camera that lets you experience more of what you like about taking action shots and less of what you don't.
Graava is a new action cam that will edit video for you — keeping what's interesting and getting rid of what isn't. Graava looks like your typical action cam, but it has five embedded sensors (a camera, microphone, accelerometer, GPS and heart rate monitor) to help it determine the most exciting parts of your footage, according to PCMag.com. If the camera films something moving or detects an increase in speed or heart rate, Graava will be more likely to think that footage is worth keeping.
To kick the editing process off after filming your activity of choice, use Graava's smartphone app to choose what you want to do with your footage — such as editing down a several-hour video into a five-minute clip. Then set Graava up with its charger, and it will connect to Wi-Fi, automatically syncing and editing the video for you. The camera sends a notification when editing is complete.
It's a little hard to say how long it'll take for the Graava to finish your video. According to the FAQs page on the official website, "The auto-edit process can take from a few seconds to a couple of minutes of processing." However, the site also notes that "it may take a considerable time to process your videos," depending on the amount of footage and the speed of your Internet connection.
In addition to the possibility of Wi-Fi woes bogging down the editing process, Graava's relatively low battery life of three hours (when Wi-Fi connectivity is turned off) could make it difficult to capture everything during the all-day excursions the company seems to expect you to take. That's especially the case as the self-editing function of the camera would come in handy if you shot a ton of footage. To remedy that, Graava's FAQs page suggests connecting an external battery through the camera's micro-USB connector, which can be purchased separately.
When you're not using the Graava to capture what you see when you're hang gliding or jumping out of a plane or something, it can double as a home or baby monitoring system. Graava's app lets you see and use your smartphone's microphone to interact with what the camera captures in real-time. You can receive notifications when Graava detects movement and establish which areas to monitor. You can also sign up for a subscription service to record and save video in the cloud to view it anytime.
The Graava is available for pre-order at a price of $249, if you do so before September 1. After that, Graava will retail for $399. It is scheduled to ship in the first quarter of 2016.
