The palm-sized ONAGOfly is an affordable GPS-enabled drone that automatically takes photos using smile and obstacle recognition technology.
This little drone goes for $199 on Indiegogo right now ($299 after campaign ends) and comes with built-in obstacle avoidance sensors, as well as some other features usually reserved for larger, more expensive drones like 15 MP camera, 1080p HD video, throw and fly capability (you throw it up and it automatically starts to fly), resistant to wind speeds up to1.6-3.3 m/s, peer-to-peer live streaming, and can be controlled from either an Android or iOS device using WiFi for up to 66 feet in distance.
Normally the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires registration for unmanned aircraft systems. However, this bite-sized flying camera is so small (0.3 lbs) it doesn’t need to be on the books. According to the FAA rules, only drones weighing more than 0.55 lbs or 250 grams must register but because the ONAGOfly is so small, it flies right under the regulation.
ONAGOfly has so far raised more than $1.8 million on Indiegogo, from nearly 9,000 backers, with 11 days to go before the campaign ends. Those backing this campaign are promised a comparatively quick delivery date of March 2016.
Source: TechCrunch
[After the spectacular collapse of a similar project, the Zano drone which raised GBP 2.3 M on Kickstarter and left 12,000 backers out of pocket, backers of this project should beware -Ed.]
It may be under the registration limit, but that does not relieve owners and operators of this UAS from the other FAA requirement with regard to the NAS.
If all 9000 + people get this next month there may be some interesting repercussions and incidents.
Users need to beware of violating others personal space.
Niel