20/12/2016
Instead of extending your arm or using a selfie stick to snap shots of you and your crew, you could use a new pocket-size drone — dubbed the "AirSelfie" — to help you remotely capture aerial photos and videos.
The AirSelfie is the brainchild of Italian entrepreneur Edoardo Stroppiana, who came up with the idea in 2014. "AirSelfie is specifically designed and produced for people who used to think drone cameras are extremely complicated to use — too expensive and bulky,"
The AirSelfie is equipped with a 5-megapixel camera that can shoot full high-definition (HD) 1080p video, as well as a 4GB microSD card. Using the AirSelfie, people, groups and companies can take pictures of themselves, their backgrounds and their projects from distances, heights and angles that they never could using their arms or a stick, Stroppiana said. [5 Technologies for the Selfie-Obsessed]
The drone's four rotors help it fly up to 65 feet (20 meters) in the air. The flying camera measures only about 3.72 by 2.65 by 0.42 inches (9.45 by 6.73 by 1.07 centimeters) — "smaller than a smartphone," Stroppiana said — and weighs 1.83 ounces (52 grams).
The drone uses sonar to measure its altitude and keeps itself stable with the help of a tiny extra camera to monitor its surroundings for signs of jitter. It is also equipped with gyroscopes, barometers and geomagnetic sensors that help it navigate as it flies, said AirSelfie Holdings Ltd. in London, the company that Stroppiana co-founded in 2016 to manufacture the drone.