Nixie is a wearable drone camera that flies from your wrist
Intel kickstarted its Make it Wearable challenge earlier this year to encourage developers to create “the next big idea in wearable technology”, and one of the 10 finalists, Nixie, has truly caught everyone’s attention.
The device, detailed recently on The Creators Project, is a wearable and flyable drone camera concept from team leader Christoph Kohstall, project manager Jelena Jovanovic, and team member Michael Niedermayr. It is essentially a wrist band equipped with a camera that flies from your wrist when needed to ,do its remote filming. The prototype uses Intel’s new Edison system-on-a-chip to power most of its functionality.
Although the wearable is still in development, the team hopes to eventually be able to send the Nixie up in the air with a gesture, have it recognise where the wearer is standing, snap a photo, and return back to the wearer’s wrist like a boomerang. The project initially started as a pair of flying glasses, slightly worrying if the drone is flying straight back towards your face…
The quad-copter which the wristband changes into can be controlled through a remote control, and the device will serve as your personal paparazzi without having to ask a stranger and risk losing your device all together just for a photo.
Intel’s competition will see all finalists present the final form of their devices in early November, where the winner will pocket $500,000 to further develop their idea. Among the other finalists announced by Intel are Vumbl, a sports and activity necklace, Snowcookie, a “sixth sense” alert system for skiers and an emotional prosthetics connecting mothers and their babies called Babybe.