14 DAY TRIAL // We've all heard about wearable technology by now, and we've all heard about flying drones as well. Most of us anyway. What we haven't seen, though, is a flying drone that can become a wearable device and vice versa.
Thanks to Team Nixie, that has now changed. Having participated in the Make It Wearable competition, they have managed to reach the finals thanks to the Nixie wearable quadcopter.
The flying drone stays curled around your wrist when it's not in use, but can unfold and take to the skies when you wish it so.
Well, maybe not the skies, but it should reach a respectable distance, enough to take awesome aerial photos, maybe record cool video of animals and little bugs too.
The Nixie air drone
Quadcopters have been turning out to be the most common type of aerial mini drones in the world, considering how often they've been making the news, or showing up on YouTube.
As such, it's no wonder than the same type of aerial vehicle has been chosen by team Nixie. Especially with how relatively straightforward it was to turn the four arms into the strap of the bracelet form.
It doesn't make the invention any less ingenious of course. Just having the idea to do this is a potential game changer.
With all the smartwatches that have been showing up over the past two years, it was just a matter of time before someone took the concept beyond the walls of the box.
There were some issues that had to be overcome of course, like the tensile strength of the four copter arms. They had to be flexible enough to properly twist around the wrist, but still shape-retentive enough to retake their planar shape when the clasp is released. All the while without necessitating too much force to bend it from one shape to the other.
The drone uses an Intel Edison chip and specially designed software that allows it to know where you are.
That way, when you release it, it can turn around and take a picture of you from the air. It allows you to take shots of you climbing a cliff or balancing on a tightrope. In essence, it lets you immortalize exciting moments you couldn't before.
The prospects of this invention
Even if the Nixie doesn't win the Make It Wearable competition (finalists to be posted on November 3, 2014), it may very well take off anyway, forgive the pun. Simply because its ability cannot be duplicated by just handing a camera over to another person to take the shot.
