Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Nixie – Wearable camera that can fly [video]

flynixie.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 55 posts

Re: Nixie – Wearable camera that can fly [video]

#21

Post by mjlangiii »

uptown wrote: post #16
joosters wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the usual waste-of-space website design. Let's fill the front page with photos and bios of ourselves, while not bothering to include any useful information about the actual product.

Or maybe the team they've assembled is working on exactly that. At this stage - it's not really yet a product, but a concept. Instead of shitting on their website design, why not wait a while to see if this collection of seemingly talented people with a common goal are able to accomplish what they've set out to do?

We can wait, sure. But it is a fair question to ask why they haven't put the stage they're at on the web page somewhere right now.

Re: Nixie – Wearable camera that can fly [video]

#22

Post by bpicolo »

morkfromork wrote: post #17
ponyous wrote: post #3

But do you need to control it with your phone? It looks awesome if you can just release and that's it, without the need to control the camera.

Seems like voice control commands would work well.

They want it to be able to go a decent distance away from you. I don't think voice control would be very intuitive if you have to shout at it

Re: Nixie – Wearable camera that can fly [video]

#23

Post by invertedohm »

Syi wrote: post #18

I was really interested when I saw this the other day and it is an awesome idea but as others have mentioned I wish they would give some details on how they plan to address some of the key issues. Most importantly and an issue which seems to have been affecting drones in general is battery life. Even current commercially successful drones only last a matter of minutes before needing to be recharged and they are sever…

No matter how incredible the software is, I don't see a solution for the core problem that they will need to solve: battery vs weight. It's revealing that there are no prototypes shown at all.

Very curious what their weight goal is and how they plan to deal with physics.

Re: Nixie – Wearable camera that can fly [video]

#24

Post by asynchronous13 »

taylorbuley wrote: post #8

It's clever psychology to place the (3D-rendered?) product shot right next to the mountain climber action shot. But it's trickery and leaves a foul taste in my mouth. Failing to include any actual pictures (or in this case, real footage) of a product "in development" always undermines my confidence by giving me the vaporware vibe. I'm a much bigger fan of Oculus' "in development" communications. "Here's what we built…

How does one include real footage when the product does not exist yet?

Re: Nixie – Wearable camera that can fly [video]

#25

Post by bri3d »

laumars wrote: post #15
Malic wrote: post #14

I think the headaches of the FAA in their efforts to define the approved use of drones, has yet to begin.

I could be mistaken, but I thought the various aviation organisations only needed to be involved if the drones reach a certain altitude. At least I believe this is the rules for flying model planes in the UK. Other countries might differ.

The US is currently in controversy about this.

The FAA (US aircraft regulation organization) has issued 'notices' and 'guidance' for model aircraft operators dating back to the 1960s and 70s, but none of those notices have been legally binding 'FAR regulations.'

The FAA also claim that 'model aircraft' must be operated non-commercially and that once they're flown commercially, they become 'aircraft.' Using this reasoning they tried to fine a famous first-person video flyer for flying for money last year.

He won his case (FAA v. Pirker) with the judge finding that the FAA's regulations for model aircraft are indeed, non-binding, and that the distinction between 'model' and 'aircraft' does not include commercial use. However, the FAA appealed the decision and because of the procedure for transportation courts, the appeal immediately stays the decision.

To complicate things even more, our Congress passed a law in 2012 requiring and authorizing the FAA to regulate drones specifically. The FAA's rule-making process has (as usual) been very slow and they have yet to issue any final guidance or FARs.

Re: Nixie – Wearable camera that can fly [video]

#26

Post by phillmv »

Huh. Why make this wearable? Isn't that kind of an insane design constraint? I mean, what's the battery life on something small enough to wrap around your wrist - five minutes?

I mean, you go and do whatever you want. I'm just really enjoying imagining that meeting.

Is this something the lead was just passionate about? Are they serious about the "friends walking around in a park who casually want aerial selfies" use case? Are they serious about the "people who go adventure sporting but can't plan ahead to carry an extra couple lbs of gear" use case?

Do any of them regularly think "geez, if only I could spontaneously capture aerial footage at any given moment of any given day"?

Did they assemble a team of experts, and this one guy just stonewalled them because his flexible wing design was a pet feature and they had no other way to incorporate it into the product?

Did they approach an investor, and the investor said "Nah, someone's already working on next-gen brain-dead easy adventure drones. You know what's sexy? Wearable next-gen brain-dead easy adventure drones".

Re: Nixie – Wearable camera that can fly [video]

#27

Post by seanp2k2 »

Personally, the ability to wrist-wear this doesn't intrigue me at all. I have several small flying things (Blade nano qx, mcp-x, msr-x), so I'm somewhat familiar with what's currently possible on a production scale in terms of battery life, weight, etc. It shouldn't be a problem for them to get ~10-minute flight times out of this, or keep it stable in wind (though larger, heavier craft with gyro-stabilized gimbals will have a large advantage).

What I see as the biggest problem is exactly the thing that doesn't seem to add any value for me: being able to wrist-wear it. While small-scale RC flying things are incredibly durable these days (material scaling and all that), I think it'd be much too heavy, much too fiddly, and much too fragile to also make it wrist-wearable.

Re: Nixie – Wearable camera that can fly [video]

#28

Post by Syi »

invertedohm wrote: post #23
Syi wrote: post #18

I was really interested when I saw this the other day and it is an awesome idea but as others have mentioned I wish they would give some details on how they plan to address some of the key issues. Most importantly and an issue which seems to have been affecting drones in general is battery life. Even current commercially successful drones only last a matter of minutes before needing to be recharged and they are sever…

No matter how incredible the software is, I don't see a solution for the core problem that they will need to solve: battery vs weight. It's revealing that there are no prototypes shown at all. Very curious what their weight goal is and how they plan to deal with physics.

Yeah especially as they plan for it to be wearable. It needs to be light enough to comfortably stay on your wrist for a period of time. Taking the climbing example again, having even a few pounds extra weight on your arm makes things a lot more difficult. If they added battery packs which the Nixie could recharge from to compensate then it kind of defeats the point of it being wearable and so portable.

Re: Nixie – Wearable camera that can fly [video]

#29

Post by asynchronous13 »

laumars wrote: post #15
Malic wrote: post #14

I think the headaches of the FAA in their efforts to define the approved use of drones, has yet to begin.

I could be mistaken, but I thought the various aviation organisations only needed to be involved if the drones reach a certain altitude. At least I believe this is the rules for flying model planes in the UK. Other countries might differ.

In the US, the FAA makes a distinction between recreational and commercial usage. For example, it is perfectly legal to take pictures of your home from a radio-controlled vehicle. But, if you sell those pictures, now you've broken the law -- even if you are selling the pictures well after the flight. (Don't try to apply logic, it doesn't make sense)

The FAA controls all airspace in the US. It's not true that they don't control airspace below 400ft. However, FAA has published guidance for operation of radio-controlled vehicles that includes altitude restrictions.

Re: Nixie – Wearable camera that can fly [video]

#30

Post by joosters »

uptown wrote: post #16
joosters wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the usual waste-of-space website design. Let's fill the front page with photos and bios of ourselves, while not bothering to include any useful information about the actual product.

Or maybe the team they've assembled is working on exactly that. At this stage - it's not really yet a product, but a concept. Instead of shitting on their website design, why not wait a while to see if this collection of seemingly talented people with a common goal are able to accomplish what they've set out to do?

Sorry, 'design' was a poor choice of words by me. It is the content on the page that annoys me. Even if they are just at a concept stage, they could have useful information on the page.
Post reply on HN