I really want this wearable drone to be for real

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nixie

I usually don’t like to post news about prototype products, but when I saw the video for the Nixie wearable drone, I couldn’t help but want to show you guys. Imagine wearing a drone capable of flying and recording video on your wrist. When you want it to fly, just press a button and it pops off your arm and flies away, tracking your movement. It sounds crazy, but I hope this isn’t a hoax because I want one now! The Nixie is drone with four propellers that is made of a flexible material so that it can wrap around your wrist when it’s not flying and recording your adventures. According to the Nixie website, this product is in early development and there is no info about when this drone will be available or what it will cost. You can sign up for notifications and check out the demo video that doesn’t really even show the product at all, but I still can’t help but want one even though I have no idea what I’d really use it for.

8 thoughts on “I really want this wearable drone to be for real”




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  2. From a manufacturing standpoint the only thing preventing this from existing is small enough and light enough battery. We can build it light enough, motors and props strong enough, camera and computer can be made small enough. Only thing I think would hold this back would be power. I couldn’t think we have anything (reasonably priced) that would allow for only a few second of flight time.

  3. Not only that but real full sized quad copters after they are physically constructed have to be calibrated so the “flight computer” knows how much thrust it’s really getting, the precise position of the motors, etc….. etc…. I can’t imagine gumby + quadcopter EVER making sense to the computer.

    But I could be wrong. And I AM intrigued!

  4. Can a drone this tiny even withstand wind? This would be a great James Bond gadget. He can dispatch the drone into whichever house he plans to break into no problem. Then he sees a real life feed on his smartwatch lol.

  5. @Mathew ZS: I can think of two methods to solve the “Gumby” problem. Simple jointed track inside the arms can have a steal cable in center. Pulling this cable tight into the body will stiffen the arms up pretty well. The design would be rather simple. You could also do something similar with inflatable air bladders. I would think the remaining jitters can easily be compensated by a computer.

    @Truffol: I would think this would be an indoor only device. Like those small helicopters.

  6. @Andrew Absolutely there certainly are some directions they can go. I’m still a bit dubious about the beating the drone will take on my wrist. That said if it cuts down on the time it takes to find my car at the mall I’m ALL for it:)

  7. This item is totally cool. Like you, Julie, I don’t know what in the hell I would it for; maybe to annoy my partner. And of course this watch drone would have to be reasonable priced.

  8. This little quad is super cool. Although I can’t see this to production anytime soon. That is alot of nano technology to pack into such a tiny form factor. We are just starting to see obstacle avoidance making its way to larger drones. The battery would be so small that it would only get a few minutes of fly time. Still I hope they can make it happen as it’s a super cool gadget.

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