The market for wearable computing device is about to witness a new product, the wearable drone referred to as Nixie. This product was developed by a team of do-it-yourself developers who developed a wrist band into a drone equipped with a camera. This device won the Intel contest and the developers were awarded $500,000.
The developers target mountain climbers and other sports enthusiast. Nixie clings to your wrist and then unfolds, flying some distance ahead, snaps photos and take videos of the surroundings for you. The product adds a new twist to the world of camera, making it autonomous, flyable and wearable. It is ready to go here and there, beyond the reach of your arms, setting you free from the inconveniences associated with manual work. When in “boomerang mode”, you can release Nixie to go and snap photos and take videos of hard to reach areas and come back to you. In the “follow me” mode, it will follow you, covering your events while you engage in the most dangerous and wild activities which appeals to you.
Presently, Nixie is in the prototype stage as the idea was born only just 10 days to the deadline of the competition. The team did an excellent job in convincing the judges that it is a very brilliant product and that it would appeal to the target market, making it viable. The funds realised from the competition would be used in the improvement of the components like the motors, propeller and miniaturising the entire product.
According to one of the Judges, Uri Minkoff, he said, “Once they get the product right and finished that, I think the business model becomes very clear,” This miniature drone Nixie weighs about a tenth of a pound and can capture images in HD, synchronising them with a smart phone while the owner is busy exploring the forests or new terrains in the plains. Undeniably, this is an impressive concept, despite still in its unfinished state, it is a pointer to the fact that a myriad of problems can be solved without sacrificing a lot.
