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Lily – Drone camera

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Lily – Drone camera

#221

Post by nine_k »

reverend_gonzo wrote: post #193
nine_k wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want 99.9999% reliability and strong safety guarantees as a feature of cars, bikes, and can openers, too. Unfortunately, currently we probably make do with a few less nines on all these items.

Cars and bikes are directly controlled by humans, and in the case of an emergency, then can perform necessary maneuvers to reduce the damages. Not saying that always happens, but for the most part it does. A drone that loses an engine falls out of the sky and lands on top of anything that is below it, and as of right now, there are no evasive maneuvers that can be executed. Especially for drones that are being used t…

Fair enough!

I even suppose that parachutes or stability with 1-2 engines lost might not be "mandatory". The cost of insurance of unequipped craft flying on a major event would be so high that nobody would even try that.

Re: Lily – Drone camera

#222

Post by [deleted] »

monk_e_boy wrote: post #62
josefresco wrote: post #19

I wonder how this handles obstacles. The trails we ride are not wide open ski slopes, or rivers, often times they are tight/wooded trails. Would like to see how it handles "close following". Lastly, the part in the video where the guy just tosses it into the river was definitely mind-blowing.

Wonder if you can buy a few and tell them to follow each other.

[deleted]

Re: Lily – Drone camera

#223

Post by catshirt »

comrh wrote: post #208
ep103 wrote: post #197

It would be cool if the remote in your pocket had a "Call 911!" button. So like, if I was out snowboarding, and saw an avalanche coming, I probably wouldn't be able to call 911. But this little drone is a good deal above me and the avalanche/murderer/shark/whatever, it could call 911 for me, and when they recovered it, it would have video of what happened to me. It could even fly towards a preset location (known rang…

A fun idea but in an avalanche the chances of you reaching your pocket before being entombed in snow is pretty low.

obviously this is a less general approach; but i'd think the software could detect with reasonable certainty when it's subject was suddenly covered by snow.

Re: Lily – Drone camera

#224

Post by sgustard »

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?

It can also carry my backpack. Like my own army of air sherpas.

Re: Lily – Drone camera

#225

Post by brador »

bonestamp2 wrote: post #220
comrh wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A fun idea but in an avalanche the chances of you reaching your pocket before being entombed in snow is pretty low.

Assuming you were still alive under the snow for a brief period of time you could hit the button then.

And if you weren't it could detect your heartbeat through a smartwatch and know you're in trouble.

Re: Lily – Drone camera

#226

Post by dmix »

sean-duffy wrote: post #119
dmix wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's oddly scary to watch for some reason. I'm not sure why? Maybe due to the fact drones are primarily used for war at the moment...

Primarily? I'd highly doubt that. Small multirotors and model aircraft like these are far more ubiquitous than the machines weighing upwards of 2,000 kgs which are used by the military.

Regardless of form-factor the military is the primary player in the drones industry. The vast majority of operations and spending are classified.

I was thinking more about the future applications of high-speed small drones when they become ubiquitous. Even if it is simply reconnaissance.

Re: Lily – Drone camera

#227

Post by jakejake »

bglazer wrote: post #131

This is really, really cool. That said, flying objects are inherently dangerous. I was at a bike race and a guy was following the pack with a DJI drone. One motor suddenly failed and the thing plummeted to the ground from 40ft and broke into a bunch of pieces. Luckily, it didn't hit anyone but it would have been a major incident if it had. There's a lot of excitement about the cool, flashy features of these drones (f…

I was walking down Hollywood Blvd one day when they suddenly shut the street down for about 5 minutes to do a fly-by RC helicopter shot. This was a few years before lightweight drones and cameras were on the market and this helicopter reminded me of a flying lawnmower! As it whizzed by me and thousands of other people, I was pretty sure it could easily have taken off a limb.

I have a fairly cheap drone with a built-in camera and, no doubt, it could cause a scratch or bruise if it hit you at full speed, but luckily it's nothing like they used to be.

Re: Lily – Drone camera

#228

Post by flurp »

comrh wrote: post #208
ep103 wrote: post #197

It would be cool if the remote in your pocket had a "Call 911!" button. So like, if I was out snowboarding, and saw an avalanche coming, I probably wouldn't be able to call 911. But this little drone is a good deal above me and the avalanche/murderer/shark/whatever, it could call 911 for me, and when they recovered it, it would have video of what happened to me. It could even fly towards a preset location (known rang…

A fun idea but in an avalanche the chances of you reaching your pocket before being entombed in snow is pretty low.

A drone could detect loss of communication with the pocket device (snow or falling into the ocean should be enough to do that) and start some recovery/emergency sequence. E.g. stop + try pinging the device, if there's still no reply automatically call 911 with an emergency and GPS location. Is there a 911 REST API? :)

Re: Lily – Drone camera

#229

Post by bambax »

Istof wrote: post #205
stinos wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One motor suddenly failed Maybe drones need to start to incorporate parachutes to slow down the fall in case of problems like these, or maybe even airbags to ease the crash. Not that it would make it 99.9999% reliable, but it should be better than nothing. And also won't completely thrash your drone when it crashes. edit seems nine_k already commented with a similar idea

Quadcopters can also be saved if only one motor fails using only the 3 other motors and an algo: http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/new-algorithm-can-save-a...

Yes!! Much better than a parachute, that needs altitude to work.

Re: Lily – Drone camera

#230

Post by chrischen »

GigabyteCoin wrote: post #209

Just a personal gripe, but I hate it when websites don't work without the pointless www. in front of their domain. I just text a friend to visit https://lily.camera and he'll never see it, because it doesn't exist.

While I agree they should make www redirect, its not pointless. If you serve sub domains or plan on serving them, www as your primary helps differentiate cookies.
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