Whether you love or loathe selfies, the Hover Camera by Zero Zero Robotics – a Shanghai-based company, is an exciting new self-flying camera with the ability to track faces while following people around shooting stills or 4k video. Weighing just 238 grams, the Hover Camera is easy to use and designed to completely remove the difficulties of flying a drone.
The Hover camera is a tiny foldable quadcopter is made of carbon fibre, and is about the sizeof a book with propellors are encased in a mesh to keep them safely tucked away. It can be set to hover, track an assigned face or body, shoot panoramics or if you prefer you can control it manually using a smartphone app. The really clever part is that when tracking a person it’s designed to remain at a distance so it won’t bump into you.
Basic Hover Camera specs
The Hover Camera uses a 2.3GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, which is also used in smartphones including HTC One (M8), the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the OnePlus X to name just a few. This is alongside a 13MP camera capable of shooting photos and 4K video at 30fps. The Hover Camera uses a single-axis gimbal that can tilt it up and down, and electronic image stabilisation to reduce camera shake when shooting video.
The small size and weight of the Hover Camera mean you won’t need a license to use the device. Although it’s safe to say that walking around busy events with the Hover Camera following you will not only raise a few eyebrows, it could potentially get you into trouble.
Battery life is short, and with a single charge you can expect to get up to eight minutes of flying time. With this in mind it would be great to see additional batteries shipped with the camera when it’s relased for sale in June 2016 with an expected price of around $600 / £410.
In the meantime the company has built 2,000 units and hopes to start a beta program where creative can apply to try a drone for free on the Hover Camera website. All you have to do is tell the company in 200 words or less, what you would capture with one of these tiny drones if you had the opportunity to try one. Simply click on the Join Beta button and fill in your details.
Zero Zero Robotics headed by Meng Qiu Wang has raised around $25 million in funding over the past two years, which proves there’s a huge amount of interest in products like the Hover Camera. The practical applications for professional photographers and consumers are huge. And not least, the Hover Camera looks like a lot of fun. It will be interesting to see how it performs when it’s released in the summer.
About Meng Qiu Wang
Meng Qiu Wang is Founder and CEO of Zero Zero Robotics, a robotics company pioneering the future of smart flying robotics. Its flagship product, Hover Camera, is the world’s first truly consumer-friendly autonomous flying camera. Prior to founding Zero Zero Robotics, Meng Qiu was a fellow at XSeed Capital in Silicon Valley.
To learn more about the Hover camera visit www.gethover.com