Comment by phillmv | Hacker News Reader

Comment by phillmv | Hacker News Reader

Huh. Why make this wearable? Isn't that kind of an insane design constraint? I mean, what's the battery life on something small enough to wrap around your wrist - five minutes?

I mean, you go and do whatever you want. I'm just really enjoying imagining that meeting.

Is this something the lead was just passionate about? Are they serious about the "friends walking around in a park who casually want aerial selfies" use case? Are they serious about the "people who go adventure sporting but can't plan ahead to carry an extra couple lbs of gear" use case?

Do any of them regularly think "geez, if only I could spontaneously capture aerial footage at any given moment of any given day"?

Did they assemble a team of experts, and this one guy just stonewalled them because his flexible wing design was a pet feature and they had no other way to incorporate it into the product?

Did they approach an investor, and the investor said "Nah, someone's already working on next-gen brain-dead easy adventure drones. You know what's sexy? Wearable next-gen brain-dead easy adventure drones".

For climbers and maybe surfers(water proof ?) this might be handy...

Sometimes it's not about planning... When climbing for example it's really hard to take decent pictures, because it's hard to go to the places where the picture would look good.

Their focus should probably be more like sports than "friends in the park"

I also think they will face some serious issues with making this thing work and I don't know how big the market is.

But I would really consider buying one if they made this thing work.

I found it so awkward they chose that scenario as the first. They weren't doing anything but taking a selfie. Maybe if they were running, playing with a dog, throwing a frisbee, anything other than just grip and grinning for the camera?

As a climber, I don't see how the design constraint of it wearable makes it any more useful. It being reasonably small and lightweight (and robust) would be nice for me to actually carry it with me regularly, but I don't want it on my wrist. I want it on my harness or in my pack since having things on your wrist can make some holds virtually unusable, especially if you're crack climbing.

Hi, fellow climber!

As a bracelet it will easily fit your harness rings.

It's useful to mention that Nixie was an entry to Intel's "Make it Wearable" competition. Intel is pushing some new processors, in particular focusing on wearables. Nixie won some money from Intel for their proposed design.

If for no other reason than the press attention the project received. Likewise, Amazon isn't likely to actually deliver packages via drone, but it didn't stop 60 Minutes from devoting a show based on the concept. A writer coined a term "Conspicuous R&D" to describe efforts like this. Auto companies have been doing it for years in the guise of "Concept Cars." From a pure engineering perspective it's not an optimal solution, but it gained a ton more attention than if it was merely a sort of small quadcopter.

I wouldn't be surprised to see this company eventually move towards non-wearable drones, but this little R&D project doubled nicely as a marketing campaign.

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