When hearing the phrase “surveillance drone,” most people probably think of large-scale unmanned flying aircraft deployed by the military or federal government.
However, not all flying drones that are able to stream video are large aircraft. Take the Palm-sized MeCam, for example. This relatively small flying surveillance drone is capable of following you around and streaming video to a smartphone.
Essentially, this little device allows you to play out your life in a third-person sort of a way. Since the video goes directly to your smartphone, you can save it for upload to YouTube, Facebook, as well as other video sharing and social networking sites. The image above is of a prototype developed by Always Innovating – a company that believes its flying cameras could eventually sell for only $49.
The small camera sensor is the little black square on the front of the quad rotor micro helicopter. The drone also boasts14 different sensors that help the machine detect objects around it so it doesn’t crash into a wall, people, or other obstacles. Interestingly, the drone isn’t packaged with a traditional remote, rather, it accepts voice commands.
You can tell it to move up and down or simply say follow me. If you say follow me, the camera will automatically follow you around like a little puppy, minus all the nipping at your heels.
The MeCam is equipped with an ARM Cortex-A9 processor, 1 GB of RAM, integrated Wi-Fi, and integrated Bluetooth. Always Innovating wants to license the design, allowing allow products to be sold based on the design by early 2014.
