This Self-Flying, Camera-Equipped Drone Can Follow You Anywhere

Hover Camera’s creator, Meng Qiu “MQ” Wang, pulls out a small, rectangular device that looks at first like an external hard drive. He folds out the body, presses a button on the top and throws it into the air. It immediately begins hovering smoothly (yet loudly) in place. Four propellers sit enclosed in a carbon fiber grate, almost giving it the illusion that it’s floating magically. MQ walks around and the machine starts following him. He pushes it and it quickly flies back into place.

MQ is the CEO and cofounder of Zero Zero Robotics, the maker of the Hover Camera. Headquartered in Beijing, the 80-person company came out of stealth on Tuesday after having worked on the flying robot for more than two years now. It’s attracted $25 million in investment from Seed and Series A venture rounds. Investors include IDG, GSR Ventures, ZhenFund, ZUIG and others. MQ and Tony Wang, the other founder, have PhDs from Stanford University.

Inside the Hover Camera is a processor made by mobile chip giant Qualcomm — specifically the Snapdragon 801 “system on a chip.” This high-end chipset is running all the computer vision algorithms to follow people around and avoid flying into objects. On the front of the drone is a 13-megapixel camera for recording in 4K as well as tracking people. On the bottom is a ground-facing camera and sonar to help keep the drone flying steadily. Also inside the drone are sensors like an accelerator, gyroscope and barometer. Altogether, the drone weighs only 240 grams.

In the app, users will be able to do things like set the position of the drone, choose which person it’s following or do panorama shots. Users can upload the video footage the Hover Camera collects onto their phone.

Hover Camera (Photo credit: Matt Kang)