Date:19/07/16

Australian inventor creates flying selfie stick

Imagine a selfie stick that flies. Well, it’s real, it’s Australian designed and there’s now video of it to whet your appetite. The ROAM-e doesn’t look like a normal drone; it looks more like a flying water bottle. The inventors say it’s capable of flying out in front of you and taking snaps and video as you walk, run, ski, cycle, tap dance or do other activities.
 
The ROAM-e drone is the brainchild of 27-year-old Australian entrepreneur Simon Kantor and his startup IoT Group. They claim the ROAM-e is the world’s first flying selfie stick. That isn’t strictly true because 18 months ago this reporter witnessed another device called Nixie, a small drone that sits on your arm like a giant cockroach.
 
Nixie would take off, turn around, take a shot of you from afar, and then fly back to you like a homing pigeon. Nixie debuted in 2014 before going on show at the annual Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas the following January. But things have gone quiet in Nixie-land and we haven’t seen it in market. So the ROAM-e will beat Nixie to the punch in this regard.
 
There are too drones that can be programmed to follow you — the Parrot Bebop, DJI Phantom models, 3D Robotics’ Solo drone and the upcoming GoPro Drone are four. But unlike drones that lag behind you and take photos of your rear, Mr Kantor says Roam can snap the action from in front — something far more visually appealing.
 
“It follows you from in front of you, not behind. It follows your face,” Mr Kantor said. “You’d never take a selfie from the back of your head,” he added.
 
He said the ROAM-e remembered you by taking a 180 degree fingerprint of the front side of your face. Even where you turned to the side, it would still follow you. He said sure, It would stop tracking you if you turned around completely. In that instance it would go into “loiter mode” and wait until it recognised your face again. He said the device could stream video to Instagram or capture stills and video to a fitted USB stick.
 
I’m yet to try ROAM-e but IoT group has released video of it in action. We’re told it was filmed in Sydney last week. But a lack of compelling vision hasn’t deterred the company receiving pre-orders for more than 250,000 units which the company expected to fill before Christmas. While it’s Australian designed, manufacture is in Shenzhen, southern China.
 
“Since launch, we have been working with retailers locally and globally and production is gearing up now with early production units expected to be ready by early August, ramping up to 50,000 per week to meet demand in Australia, Japan and the US,” he said.
 
ROAM-e features a 1080p camera which Mr Kantor says avoids objects in its field of vision. You can unscrew the camera and fit a higher resolution 4K or 3D camera. And when you travel you can collapse the device to the size of a 600 ml water bottle that fits into a handbag or backpack.
 
The unit comes with 2 batteries that Mr Kantor said would offer around 20 minutes flying time each; charging took around two hours each. It has four flight modes including scout and navigation, and flies up to 25 metres away. When it’s in selfie mode the flight range is up to 3m.
 
The ROAM-e can be ordered online for $499 at www.myROAM-e.com.au or US$399 at www.myROAM-e.com. IoT group says ROAM-e will be available by the end of the September and will launch initially in three countries: Australia, Japan and the US.

 

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