Nixie (drone)

Nixie is a drone that unfolds into a quadcopter and is worn as a slap bracelet.[14] It weighs < 45 g (0.1 lb), captures full HD images or video, and syncs with a smartphone.[2][8] The drone uses an Intel Edison chip.[4] In October 2014, Nixie prototypes had good functionality, but lacked durability and design perfection.[1][2][15] At that time, an important engineering challenge was to identify flexible, light, and durable materials to achieve the look of concept renderings.[2][14] In November 2014, an updated prototype added image recognition capabilities to identify the user,[7] and the primary goals were improving propellers, motors, and object navigation.[10] The overall goal for the project was stated as building a light, portable, and user-friendly drone that could serve as a "personal photographer".[2] Accordingly, the drone was named after a playful water spirit Nixie of Germanic mythology.[9] In the media, Nixie has been described as a "wearable selfie drone"[9] and as a "wearable camera drone",[10] with such images being nicknamed "dronies". The developers emphasized that Nixie is intended for taking framing-worthy pictures and videos, not only selfies.[7]

Prototype of the drone flown by Christoph Kohstall (2014)

Even though a wearable camera drone was suggested to have applications in rock climbing, mountain biking, and other adventure sports,[2][3] in November 2014 the developers announced plans to market Nixie to a niche audience of rock climbers first, before expanding to a general audience.[8][10]

Sensors and motion-prediction algorithms are used to guide Nixie along one of four pre-programmed paths for taking photos or video.[2]

• In a boomerang mode, the drone flies a set distance from its user, takes a photo, and then returns.
• In a panorama mode, it takes photos to fill a 360° arc.
• In a follow me mode, it serves as a third-person view camera by trailing the user.
• In a hover mode, it hovers for use in jib shots and can be controlled from a smartphone.

Nixie prototyping workshop (2014)

According to Wired,[2] the first Nixie prototype was built by Christoph Kohstall. After tinkering with a quadcopter that he received as a gift, Kohstall built a drone model of eyeglasses with propellers, as well as a prototype that could dive underwater and then reemerge from under the surface.[2] To better address the poor usability of quadcopters, he then had an idea to create a "flying wristband" with a camera.[16] Kohstall's partner Jelena Jovanovic was involved in creating the first prototype and later became the project manager.[2][16] Together with Michael Niedermayr, Kohstall and Jovanovic entered the 2014 Intel's Make It Wearable competition as team Nixie led by Kohstall.[9][16] Once the team became a finalist on September 3, 2014,[1][9][16][17] Nixie received significant amount of attention,[1][2][3][9] and > 5.9 million views on YouTube.[14][15] As one of ten competition finalists, the team was provided with mentorship, design assistance, technical support, and $50,000 for further development.[1] The team presented the final prototype at the Intel Make It Wearable Challenge Finale on November 3, 2014,[15] winning the $500,000 seed funding grand prize to develop the prototype into a product.[11] In their second interview with Wired,[10] the developers indicated that their primary goals for improving the drone were optimizing propellers, motors, and object navigation, as well as miniaturisation of Nixie.

• Christoph Kohstall holds a PhD in particle physics from IQOQI, and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University.[2][6] Kohstall serves as a co-founder and Chief executive officer of Nixie.[12]
• Jelena Jovanovic is a technical program manager at Google.[2][6] Jovanovic is Chief operating officer of Nixie.[5]
• Michael Niedermayr, Floris Ernst, Stefan Niedermayr, Steven Le, Kris Winer, Jeremy Swerdlow, and Steven Shiozaki have backgrounds in motion prediction algorithms, design, and engineering.[2][6]

• Unmanned aerial vehicle
• Multirotor
• Quadcopter
• GoPro
• Point-and-shoot camera

• Official website
• Introducing Nixie: the first wearable camera that can fly YouTube video
• Make it wearable finalists: meet team Nixie YouTube video
• Intel's Make It Wearable competition