According to Mashable.com, the industry of self-photo taking just took an innovative, if not contradictory, turn. IoT Group, an Australian-based technology company, just began the pre-sale of the ROAM-e, a flying selfie stick.
“The selfie stick’s problem is it’s confined by the length of the stick,” Ian Duffell, executive director of the IoT Group, told Mashable Australia. “The thought was, let’s get the thing taking the picture flying with you.”
He described the company’s vision as creating a, “selfie stick on steroids.” The fact that, by definition, a selfie was originally designated for pictures one took of themselves aside, the invention could be set to change the way society documents their lives in the digital age. Approximately eight million people fly on planes every day, but now you won’t even have to leave the comfort of your home to take a flying picture.
The device, which basically looks like some sort of camera-equipped drone, can be tethered to a smartphone and programmed for facial recognition to use at distances as far as 82 feet away. The device features a 360-degree camera with live streaming capabilities for up to 20 minutes. Inside, it packs a 5 Megapixel CMOS sensor and a Quad Core ARM Cortex A7 Processor, according to the ROAM-e website.
Duffell was quick to point out the difference between this new device and typical drones for critics who might try to classify them as virtually one and the same.
“We all know drones fly around and take pictures, but because we’ve tailored it to be portable and in your space, it fits into a different category,” Duffell explained. “We wanted it to be small enough to fit into a bag or pocket. We modeled it on not being bigger than a 600-millilitre water bottle.”
The device is set to be released in full this June and sports a hefty $267 price tag.