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Lily – Drone camera

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Lily – Drone camera

#81

Post by semi-extrinsic »

wahsd wrote: post #68
semi-extrinsic wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest showstopper for me on this is the hugely disappointing top speed (40 km/h). I'm an alpine skier (ex-racer) and the only times I go that slow is on transport stages. This thing literally wouldn't be able to keep up with Usain Bolt running the 100m. It needs at least twice the top speed.

Usain Bolt does around 38 km/h

Yeah, but I bet he accelerates faster.

Edit: he accelerates from standstill at 9.5 m/s^2. I couldn't find data on what drones do.

Re: Lily – Drone camera

#82

Post by codeshaman »

Would be interesting if you could have a bunch of these shooting from different angles, positioned so that they don't shoot each other.

Basically it's like having your own cameramen, so you can have spectacular camera angles without involving huge crews. This could be cool for TV shows, documentary and indie films.

Re: Lily – Drone camera

#83

Post by raesene9 »

bezaorj wrote: post #72
gambiter wrote: post #24

I'm very impressed by the capabilities. I've seen 'follow me' drones before, but I don't know if I've seen any that are waterproof or as compact as this. And the smiling face on the front is a nice touch. It's still hard to part with my money (even at 50% off) when the ship date is next year though. I've been burned by various kickstarter projects that get delayed ad infinitum.

From the FAQ: "What is your policy on refunds? If you decide to cancel your pre-order before Lily ships, we will provide a full refund to you."

Assuming of course that they don't run out of funds before they ship.

This isn't a slight on this project specifically but there is a risk that any project which isn't yet in production won't get that far...

Re: Lily – Drone camera

#84

Post by grecy »

codeshaman wrote: post #82

Would be interesting if you could have a bunch of these shooting from different angles, positioned so that they don't shoot each other. Basically it's like having your own cameramen, so you can have spectacular camera angles without involving huge crews. This could be cool for TV shows, documentary and indie films.

The FAQ says they're working on having multiple cameras follow one subject.

Re: Lily – Drone camera

#85

Post by Gracana »

semi-extrinsic wrote: post #66
rsync wrote: post #36

One feature (or use case) that I would like a follow-me drone for is path-lighting. That is, let's say I'm going on a walk in the dark and I don't want to use a flashlight or wear a headlamp - I've thought of a drone flying 8-10 feet up, a few feet ahead of me, shining a light to light my way. Since the Lily people seem to be here answering HN comments, I wonder, how far off is your product from doing that ?

Sorry, what? How on earth would this be better than a headlamp, apart from the "look at my drone, my drone is amazing" part?

Well right now it's totally impractical, but if it floated silently, it would be pretty amazing. It could even light the path that you need to follow to help you navigate, and it wouldn't cause you to blind anyone you turned to talk to.

Re: Lily – Drone camera

#86

Post by raisedbyninjas »

exelius wrote: post #21
sc00ty wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiousity, what does your AMEX card offer if this is VarporWare?

Amex allows you to dispute charges very easily. Their dispute resolution process is slanted in favor of the cardholder rather than the merchant.

Additionally, Amex provides both the credit as well as credit card processing for their customers instead of splitting the business with thousands of banks. So when a merchant exceeds whatever shadiness threshold is set by Amex they are banned from accepting all Amex cards vs. cards issued by $yourbank. So there is incentive for the merchant provide good customer service.

Re: Lily – Drone camera

#87

Post by Nadya »

semi-extrinsic wrote: post #66
rsync wrote: post #36

One feature (or use case) that I would like a follow-me drone for is path-lighting. That is, let's say I'm going on a walk in the dark and I don't want to use a flashlight or wear a headlamp - I've thought of a drone flying 8-10 feet up, a few feet ahead of me, shining a light to light my way. Since the Lily people seem to be here answering HN comments, I wonder, how far off is your product from doing that ?

Sorry, what? How on earth would this be better than a headlamp, apart from the "look at my drone, my drone is amazing" part?

"We choose not to do these things because they are practical, but because they are cool!"

Re: Lily – Drone camera

#88

Post by exelius »

shortstuffsushi wrote: post #50
exelius wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amex allows you to dispute charges very easily. Their dispute resolution process is slanted in favor of the cardholder rather than the merchant.

Is this a reason that many merchants don't accept AmEx?

Partially, yes. But Amex also charges higher transaction fees, which come out of the merchant's profits. Between the two, and the fact that only ~20% of people have an Amex, many merchants decide Amex isn't worth the trouble.

Re: Lily – Drone camera

#89

Post by outworlder »

rsync wrote: post #36

One feature (or use case) that I would like a follow-me drone for is path-lighting. That is, let's say I'm going on a walk in the dark and I don't want to use a flashlight or wear a headlamp - I've thought of a drone flying 8-10 feet up, a few feet ahead of me, shining a light to light my way. Since the Lily people seem to be here answering HN comments, I wonder, how far off is your product from doing that ?

A 'headlamp' doesn't seem that useful. A 'search spotlight', like the police helicopters, could be more interesting.

Re: Lily – Drone camera

#90

Post by jader201 »

seivan wrote: post #76
alexcroox wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the big reason people don't buy these types of drones (this one certainly isn't the first of it's kind). It doesn't have obstacle avoidance or it will make a massive deal of it.

I probably have no clue what I am talking about, but wouldn't it be sorta like steering forces? Seek A Avoid B In your case, a ton of Bs in terms of leaves, branches and etc. I guess it would need a wide scan to detect if there is a path either vertically or horizontally.

Well, (A) has a tracking device. All the (B)s don't. If they did, then yeah, this would work.

Right?

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