Snap released Pixy, an an automated flying selfie drone. Just $230, the palm-sized gadget lifts-off, takes a shareable photo or video of you, then lands by itself.
Science fiction fans know that this idea is not new. SF author Karen Traviss described a Pixy in her 2004 novel City of Pearl:
He set his camera to follow him, and it hovered behind him like a large tame bee.
"Tight mid-shot and pull out on but behind me," he told it. He checked the shot on his handheld screen and moved a few meters to the right. That was better.
(Read more about Karen Traviss' bee cam)
Via KurzweilAI, which I haven't looked at in a while.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 6/13/2022)
Perching Ambush Drones
'On the chest of drawers something was perched.' - Philip K. Dick, 1956.
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'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
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'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair or to perch on a flagpole in imitation of a giant bird, even in the windy city of Chicago.'
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