http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/the-filter/11330171/Forget-selfies-could-2015-be-the-year-of-dronies.html
Forget selfies, could 2015 be the year of 'dronies'? Zano, a new Kickstarter-funded project, heralds a world in which we film our every move from a drone that hovers above our heads 2014 was, emphatically, the year of the selfie. Everyone from the Queen to the Pope seemed to be getting in on the 'self-photo' act. Even a monkey managed to make the headlines after composing a grinning self shot on a photographer's camera. Now, 2015 has put its stake in the ground by suggesting a high-flying variation on the trend. An ongoing Kickstarter project called Zano aims to take the selfie aerial, through the use of drone technology. Billed as "the world's most sophisticated nano drone", the Zano connects to your smartphone and tracks it from a distance of 15-30 metres, allowing the user to compose photos of themselves from high in the sky. The Kickstarter project has attracted a startling amount of investment. Despite still having a day to run on the crowd-funding website, over £2.1m has already been pledged by around 11,000 backers - which means that Torquing Group Ltd, the Welsh company behind Zano, have beaten their funding goal of £125,000 by almost £2m. "Our goal was to make aerial photography and video capture truly accessible to everyone," explains Torquing Group's head of marketing Reece Crowther on the Kickstarter page. "This meant making ZANO small and lightweight, yet durable enough to take with you anywhere." "Intelligent enough so no piloting skills were required, and most of all, pricing ZANO at a point that makes it affordable." Users can either manually control the drone's flight, or set it to automatically follow them from a constant distance. It will cost £169.95 when it goes on sale later this year. Selfies shot by drone - or 'dronies' - have been around since the middle of last year. However, up until now few have adopted the technique thanks to the expensive and often difficult-to-control nature of the devices. Instead, many amateur photographers have employed the 'selfie stick' in order to elevate their photos. However, these portable and expandable accessories only offer the option to gain a metre or two in height. If the Zano does take off in 2015, the sky really will be the limit for the previously grounded selfie. _______________________________________________ Medianews mailing list [email protected] http://etskywarn.net/mailman/listinfo/medianews_etskywarn.net
