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Snap launches its first drone

pixy.com

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Re: Snap launches its first drone

#411

Post by robbiemitchell »

Aperocky wrote: post #398
robbiemitchell wrote: post #348

They focused on something obvious: influencer videos are filmed by someone else. What if you didn’t need someone else? Most drones are aimed at people who want to fly something. This is for people who want to be filmed. Totally different UX and priorities.

> influencer videos are filmed by someone else. What if you didn’t need someone else? This is a solved problem though.. in much higher spec (and not that much more expensive). Suppose you're an influencer I guess you can shell out a few hundred more for a proper drone. > Most drones are aimed at people who want to fly something Also if you're talking about the largest drone maker on the market (DJI, >50% market share…

> I guess you can shell out a few hundred more for a proper drone.

But who flies it?

> They do it because it is used to make footage (I own one).

But doesn’t that involve you flying the drone to make footage by looking at something else?

What’s interesting about this Snap drone is that it’s pitched as something that will just stare at you so you can make fancy selfies. I could be missing it, but I don’t think this is how most drones market themselves.

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#412

Post by archon810 »

achow wrote: post #153

WSJ has good review including how it works: https://www.wsj.com/articles/snap-pixy-review-dont-call-it-a... https://archive.is/zW515 Excerpt: Turn the Pixy’s dial to one of its four flying modes.. Hover: Here, the Pixy reverses a couple of feet and floats in front of you like a hummingbird. In the Snapchat app, you can customize, up to 60 seconds, how long you’d like it to capture video Reveal: Like a traditional dro…

It doesn't help that WSJ's video player quality looks like absolute butt, at least on mobile. The compression is horrific, with no way to change the bitrate or resolution. Why do most 3rd-party video players suck so much?

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#413

Post by ComradePhil »

olafura wrote: post #36

Refreshingly honest about the video quality you should expect in the main promo video. Typical problems like dynamic range, color profile, light bleed and tracking problems with the top of the head being cut off at one point. Pretty typical unless you spend more money on your drone or camera equipment. There are so many companies that fake the footage or pick much easier shooting locations.

> video quality you should expect

The video that they try to show as if out of the drone is heavily edited to make it look similar to the other camera that they have used. It is very likely that they used non-stock camera software in the drone to capture raw and post-process for this ad, which will most likely not be available to the public.

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#414

Post by TowerTall »

badwolf wrote: post #123
malauxyeux wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Would there be an audible hum in the video it records from the 4x propellers? And for those who are at the beach just trying to enjoy a little time away from the city. The folks at the beach near me are already fed up with ubiquitous Bluetooth speakers.

5-8 flights up to ~30 seconds each. I think that's pretty acceptable, vs a constant buzzing

I live on a beach in Thailand on a small tropical island and it is absolutely frown upon if someone fly with drones. It is not just the beach where I live but on all beaches island-wide where there is a high chance for that you will be asked to put your drone away. Nobody wants a camera to record their beach trip.

Maybe snaps drone is more acceptable as it seem to primarily trying to be a flying selfie stick that records you and not the entire beach area, but it still emit a buzzing that will annoy everybody.

Imagine if this product category takes off and having 10 or 20 of these on a beach becomes norm. Well, there goes your nice holiday. Enjoy your trip.

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#415

Post by throwaway413 »

notjulianjaynes wrote: post #342
throwaway413 wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So almost 1/10th of the Mini 2 flight time, for 6/10ths the price, and like 2/10ths the featureset and quality of capture. Do people really love Snapchat that much that they’d choose such a trade off for app integration alone? Seems like a tough sell.

I think there's a psychological component at play here where better = worse. Imagine you're at a party, and someone pulls out their sleek, expensive looking, 4k video drone. Now imagine someone pulls out this obnoxious yellow square frisbee thing. Which of these are you more likely to "act natural" around?

Pretty interesting point, didn’t think of that. The casualty of it.

It is rather intimidating to see someone piloting with a large controller, as opposed to just whipping out their phone like any other time. Definitely makes for a more low-risk social interaction.

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#416

Post by Aperocky »

robbiemitchell wrote: post #411
Aperocky wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> influencer videos are filmed by someone else. What if you didn’t need someone else? This is a solved problem though.. in much higher spec (and not that much more expensive). Suppose you're an influencer I guess you can shell out a few hundred more for a proper drone. > Most drones are aimed at people who want to fly something Also if you're talking about the largest drone maker on the market (DJI, >50% market share…

> I guess you can shell out a few hundred more for a proper drone. But who flies it? > They do it because it is used to make footage (I own one). But doesn’t that involve you flying the drone to make footage by looking at something else? What’s interesting about this Snap drone is that it’s pitched as something that will just stare at you so you can make fancy selfies. I could be missing it, but I don’t think this is…

> But who flies it?

It does follow mode, follows you automatically, even in a circle if you wanted it to.

Also this mode is not exactly new.. Almost all DJI drones have it, also, the drone would avoid obstacles if it detects anything while following.

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#417

Post by pavlus »

bigiain wrote: post #343
slg wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is nice, but there is still intentionally misleading marketing fluff like this: >Each rechargeable battery allows you to capture content for 5-8 flights, depending on the flight mode(s) selected. Rechargeable batteries can be swapped for easy use... Why phrase it like that? That gives zero impression of what the actual battery life is because I have no idea what a "flight" means as a unit of measurement. Just te…

So far as I can tell there are no real spec numbers anywhere. No video size/framerate/resolultion specs I could find (admittedly I only spent 1 or 2 mins clicking around looking for them). Which kinda indicates the target market they're gonna aim this at. This is for people who want to know "Can I upload the video to Snapchat?" not for people who are wondering "Is this 1080p? Or 720? Surely it can't be 4k?"

There are if you follow "Pixie Support" link in the footer, here are the specs you were looking for:

Images Standard: 4000 x 3000 (12MP)

Video Default: 2.7k Frame rate: Up to 30 FPS

https://support.pixy.com/hc/en-us/articles/5039928089236-Pix...

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#418

Post by pavlus »

hk__2 wrote: post #110
sytelus wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is probably a market for pocket drone that can carry iPhone and take selfie just like this.

The pocket drone needs a way to know where you are in order to direct the camera at you and come back at the end. Right now they do so by pairing the drone with your phone (I guess using Bluetooth).

Tracking via Bluetooth would be much less trivial than "Ok, I'll fly toward that smiling face until I see a hand in bottom camera, then I'll just start descending until it looks close enough to shut down my motors".

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#419

Post by pavlus »

powcontech wrote: post #86
firmnoodle wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they can put a dog nose and tongue on a video with AI, I would guess maybe removing the sound of the drone is possible.

AI is not even required, it would be quite easy to filter out the frequency of the noise from the rotors using technology that has existed for decades if not almost 100 years, indeed Butterworth was designing his filters in the 1930’s

Simple FIR filter won't do the job, noise from the rotors and moving air is wideband and overlaps with signal.

But adaptive filters used in noise-cancelling headphones with separate mics may work. One directional microphone records sound from the scene, the other undirected one records sound of the drone, then filter tries to minimize drone sound component in the signal from the mic by adjusting coefficients of the filter.

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#420

Post by Saris »

whatshisface wrote: post #227
Saris wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be nice to see some more effort put into noise. The tradeoff is shorter flight time, so I imagine that's why they're all loud. Drones with 8 or 12 bladed props can be surprisingly quiet, with essentially no whine at all.

> It would be nice to see some more effort put into noise. The tradeoff is shorter flight time, so I imagine that's why they're all loud. This is not necessarily true - the noise is a waste of joules, after all.

Very little though, the energy needed to make the noise is incredibly tiny compared to the energy used to fly.
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