ICYMI: Robotic cats, Kickstarter fails and more

Today on In Case You Missed It: In today's cautionary tale, the recordbreaking drone company Zano Drone is going belly-up after shipping only 100 of the roughly 15,000 drones ordered. Hasbro's latest foray into robotics has us all shouting from the...

Zano Selfie Drone Flies on Its Own

Zano Selfie Drone

Now that GoPro has announced that it would enter the drone business next year, things are about to get interesting for its competitors, who will work feverishly to make sure the action camera manufacturer doesn’t stand too much of a chance.

Zano may not come from such a reputable company, and to be fair, it’s not even meant for action shots, but hey, it’s a drone, and it is equipped with a camera, so a lot of people will compare the two at some point. Developed by Torquing Group Ltd, this drone stands out of the crowd not only because it can take selfies from up above, but also because it is autonomous. Yes, it flies on its own, and there’s little to no interaction required of you. Basically, all you need to do is to pose nicely and say “Cheese” every other 3 seconds.

This is how Torquing (Twerking? Now this one won’t win the Best Company Name of the Year, that’s for sure.) described its micro-drone on Kickstarter, where it looks to raise £125,000:

“ZANO is up and flying, holding position, avoiding obstacles, streaming live video back to a smart device, capturing video and photos. However, with as much capability as we’ve packed into ZANO, we are continuing to refine the flight, avoidance, video and photo capturing and user interface, plus we have relentless testing and refining procedures prior to us releasing ZANO to the market. We will begin our BETA testing in March 2015. With a view to enter production in May 2015!”

The way it works is really awesome, as people don’t have to program their drone, but task it. In other words, Zeno will have to do certain activities and maybe go over some thresholds in the process. Anyway, this looks like a cool project that become a reality as soon as possible.

The project has just surpassed its funding goal minutes ago, so there’s no doubt about the success of this campaign. The ones who pledged the equivalent of $200 will get their Zano micro-drone in June 2015, and if you happen to fancy this flying gadget, you’re free to back the project in the next 41 days to secure one for yourself. Given how quickly it reached its funding goal, this campaign will surely get one or more stretch goals.

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