Drones have come a long way since the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) left the battlefield and flew into our living rooms, and Snitch represents one more step into integrating drones into everyday life. This is because the Snitch is a safe and intuitive way for casual users to up their picture game, rather than a specialized tool like many drones.
The first consumer drones made use of mounts to dock Go Pro cameras to allow the user to perform aerial reconnaissance. The higher vantage point and quick movement of a drone also allows for action shots and perspective points one wouldn’t ordinarily enjoy with a handheld camera. Most of these products seem more suitable for tracking a ski run down or checking out the length of an inaccessible valley than taking a group picture, however.
The selfie-stick of drones
Vlad Lukyanov, the inventor of the Snitch, sees the device to be used in many of the same ways as a selfie-stick, albeit in a package that offers much more utility.
The “world’s first camera ball” comes in an attractive package roughly the size of a bocce ball, which will certainly appeal to casual users who are used to seeing sleek iPod like packages. Another advantage to this design is that the propeller is contained within the camera ball’s housing, leaving no chance that the propeller could come into contact with a bystander- as was the case when a quad-copter drone crashed into a woman’s face at TGI Friday’s.
Stabilized camera, 10 minutes of flight time
The Snitch offers 10 minutes of flight time and a 16MB gyro-stabilized camera ready to take HD photos while connected to any Android/iOS/WPhone device. Although the 10 minute flight time is only half that of the Lily’s 20 minute battery life, the Snitch is capable of returning to the air right away with replaceable batteries.
The Snitch isn’t meant to take the place of quad-copter drones or devices like the Lily that will follow its owner and record action sequences. According to Vlad the Snitch is designed to function like a virtual tripod and gives users the feeling of a “personal photographer anytime, anyplace.” The Snitch is a device that allows group photos that don’t exclude the person taking the picture or allows couples to take natural photos of themselves out on vacation.
Although the Snitch is quite different from the drones you are used to it still is classified a drone and must be registered as of December 2015, or you risk grounding by the Federal Aviation Administration.
#SelfieDrone
