Lily Camera – Personal HD Video & Still Camera Drone Announced

Posted on May 15, 2015

By Dan Brotman, Editor-In-Chief
Special To Future Filmmaking

Lily, a new, personal HD Camera drone, which follows the user via a wrist worn “Tracker” is now taking pre-orders via their website. The company was started in the fall of 2013 in the basement of a UC Berkeley robotics lab, where Henry Bradlow and Antoine Balaresque built the first prototype using a Raspberry Pi and an Arduino. In Spring of 2014, leading investors Shana Fisher and SV Angel came in with funding and added Robb Englin, Rowland O’Flaherty, and Nghia Ho to the team.
lily camera - personal HD Video Camera Drone
The concept was born out of the need to free the camera operator from the camera. Bradlow and Balaresque spent most of their time at UC Berkeley tinkering with robots and believed there was a better way to capture and share the world around them, and thus the Lily Camera was born — “A personal flying camera that flies itself to document life in a whole new way.”

Lily was designed to be as compact and portable as possible – it can fit into a backpack. But it also contains some very unique features including a “digital gimbal” and a microphone on the Tracking device. Instead implementing a bulky mechanical gimbal, Lily houses a digital version that crops the region of the image containing the user. The tracking device has a microphone that records high quality sound (no specs provided —Ed.) and automatically synchronizes audio from the tracking device with video it records on board.

Features:
» Video Resolution: 1080p 60 fps / 720p 120 fps
» Video FOV: 94º
» Video Format: H.264 codec, .mp4 file format
» Photo Resolution: 12 MP
» “Digital” Gimbal
» Image stabilization
» Fixed focus
» Chassis: Midnight Black Polycarbonate + Brushed Aluminium
» Built-in, non-swappable Lithium-Ion Battery
» 20 min of flight time
» Charging via 5A charger takes 2-hours
» Waterproof rating: IP67
» Max Speed: 25mph
» Max Flying Height: 50ft
» Max Flying Distance From User: 100ft
» Min Flying Distance From User: 5ft
» Accelerometer
» Three-axis Gyro
» Magnetometer
» Barometer
» GPS
» Front-facing camera
» Bottom-facing camera
» External memory card slot / 4GB micro SD included
» iOS and Android App:
— Change camera settings
— Create custom shots
— Edit and share content
Tracking Device:
» Built-in Lithium-Ion Battery
» 4-hour battery life
» Charging via micro USB
» Water resistant + Comes with waterproof wrist case
» Accelerometer
» Barometer
» GPS
» Microphone***
» Vibration motor
lily camera drone dimensions
Lily hunts the tracking device and uses computer vision to optically follow the user. It can stream low-resolution live video to the companion iOS or Android app for basic shot framing.

The founders claim that there is no setup required. Just turn on your Lily camera, make sure you have the tracking device with you – it will automatically turn on when Lily turns on – and throw Lily in the air. By default, Lily will start following you and recording a video as soon as its launched. You can set Lily’s behavior-after-takeoff in the companion app. What happens when Lily loses track of the user? It will hover in place and try to recover the signal. When it discovers the signal, it will continue it’s preset mission (set up in companion app). However, if it runs out of power while in the air, it’s programmed to smoothly land. The Tracker will warn the user in advance of battery issues, via pulse vibrations.

The Lily Camera is available for preorder for $499 until June 15th, then it will progressively increase up to the regular retail price of $999. Anticipated ship date is February 2016.

Lily Camera

Lily Camera – Personal HD Video & Still Camera Drone Announced

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