Always Innovating is working on a tiny flying video camera called the MeCam. The camera is designed to follow you around and stream live video to your smartphone, allowing you to upload videos to YouTube, Facebook, or other sites.

And Always Innovating thinks the MeCam could eventually sell for just $49.

Always Innovating MeCam

The camera is docked in a nano copter with 4 spinning rotors to keep it aloft. There are 14 different sensors which help the copter detect objects around it so it won’t bump into walls, people. or anything else.

Always Innovating also includes stabilization technology so that videos shouldn’t look too shaky.

Interestingly, there’s no remote control. Instead, you can control the MeCam in one of two ways. You can speak voice commands to tell it, for instance, to move up or down. Or you can enable the “follow-me” feature which tells the camera to just follow you around while shooting paparazzi-style video.

The MeCam features an Always Innovating module with an ARM Cortex-A9 processor, 1GB of RAM, WiFI, and Bluetooth.

The company hopes to license the design so that products based on the MeCam will hit the streets in early 2014.

If Always Innovating sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the same company that brought us the modular Touch Book and Smart Book products a few years ago.

If the MeCam name sounds familiar, on the other hand, it’s probably worth pointing out that the Always Innovating flying camera is not related the wearable camera that failed to come close to meeting its fundraising goals last year.

via CNX-Software

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30 replies on “MeCam $49 flying camera concept follows you around, streams video to your phone”

  1. If the government has one,then someone can build one for fifty bucks.
    And I can use it in a crowded mall to look for my kid.How much battery power do you think that will use.Mount
    it on top of a hat so it can take off and
    land from there.

  2. i want to buy the mecam for my project. how i can buy it? can i get the detail report of this system

  3. Gregoire Gentil needs to quit Innovating because he cant actually bring any products to market. I had a smartbook on preorder forever before they canceled all the orders. Always Innovating should be called always vapor.

    1. Agreed. I actually had a smartbook and sent it in for repair back in 2010. I have called and emailed them several times since then but never get a response.

  4. I do a bit of fell running (running up mountains) and a GoPro isn’t really very useful because there’s no way to hold it steady while running. This would be ideal.

  5. perfect who made this perfect flying cam < but it's used by lasy people how can i got like that?

  6. For those of you asking Why would this be a good thing, see my profile read about my problems. This would stop the irresponsible assholes who ‘occupy’ our government offices.
    Fred

  7. This is going to be HUGE! Buy your stock now! Just a heads up from someone back from the future. )

    1. Windows OS for Mobile phones is a real crap!, sorry but is true… 🙂

  8. This would be awesome. I film concerts from time to time and am looking to make a doc this summer. I also just bought a full-size GoPro carrying quadorotor. I would love to be involved in any sort of testing of this.

  9. The way I see it, this product could be very popular once the marketplace for it experiences its true effect.

    The ULTIMATE use for a device such as this would be to mimic the way RPG games have cameras that follow their characters around. If this device was used in partnership with a fully immersive eyewear set (aka, not Google Glass), you would be able to forego using your eyes to navigate the world around you, and rely on the eyes of the camera, floating above you.

    However, the funny part about this is that we as human beings psychologically when playing camera-following-player games have a tendency to want our characters to move faster than walking pace, because we can see them moving and see how fast they are going. If we know the character can close a distance in a shorter time, we do that, as it rarely results in consequences (unless the game has a stamina meter built in). Most games will allow you to ‘jog’ infinitely. Would a setup like this recreate this need in the real world? It would be very cool to find out!

    1. Why on earth would I want to forego my eyes to use my eyes to see a third person, shittier quality optical version of myself from aforementioned third person?

  10. Why would you want to stream videos of you? I can see wanting a cheap remote control flying camera, to check your gutters and harass the cat and so on. . . but I already know what I’m doing, and I don’t think most people would want to watch live streams of someone’s back.

    1. That depends on the shape of her back. How do you make this thing follow someone else?

  11. I see battery life being the big sticking point here.
    How long do you seriously think that thing is going to fly on a full charge, and how long will it take to charge it up?

    How are you going to get anything done when you have to maintain your own personal flying paparazzi?

    -and what happens when there’s a room full of people and everyone has one?

    1. Sorry to reply to myself, but I was discussing this with my brother and he brought up some very good points about some specialized applications where something like this would be ideal.
      I can’t help but agree!

  12. I hope this guy patent his work this time unlike the video of his 2yrs ago Touch Book and smart book which see Motorola Atrix stole his idea!!

    1. If you look at the time to market for the Atrix you will probably realize that they started that project before he came out with the video, However because he has a low time to produce a mockup and show video of it on the internet, and they have a long timeline to bring a commercially ‘viable’ product to market, the timeline looks reversed… It’s like that with a LOT of things.

      Plus Patents really are the devil.

    2. Don’t worry. Nothing here to patent. Nothing new either except the intended size and price level.

      This video was published on Vimeo 4 years ago and shows a flying camera automatically following a guy. https://vimeo.com/2689601
      This thing works. I know because I made one. Total cost (back in 2009) (much) more than $49 but less than the price of a decent SLR camera.

      Nice toy though.

  13. What a cool product that would be. Seems unlikely to ever really come to market. Oh well.

    1. Nice.
      Also see Larry Niven’s copseyes in an old sci-fi short story “Cloak of Anarchy”

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