22/09/2017
Would you like a flying friend in your home?
The world's first robotic assistant with autonomous flight, voice commands, anomaly detection security alerts & much more.
A "self-flying robotic assistant for the home." The basic idea is that the drone is smart enough to keep itself upright in the air and avoid obstacles, so you can safely fly it indoors without crashing into too many lamps or small dogs. You can remotely control the drone with your phone to check a suspicious situation when you're away from home, or to video conference with your family (there's a built-in microphone and speaker).
Aire doesn't sound or move like a typical drone, which is a big point of emphasis for its creators. It sounds a bit like a vacuum cleaner or hair dryer, instead of that mosquito-in-your-ear sound you get from most drones. It's also really safe to interact with. For instance, when we were asking Aire, over Amazon Alexa voice command, to take a photo, it was totally cool to grab the drone and position it in the desired spot — once you let go it stabilizes and keeps flying like nothing happened.
The technology that makes this stable flight possible is what makes Aire so interesting. It has stereo cameras for vision, a 3D depth camera for obstacle avoidance, a downward facing camera for positioning, and sonar sensors all around for more obstacle avoidance
But there's enough technology here to do some very interesting things if Aire is successful. For instance, you could ask Aire to scan your entire home for insurance purposes, or create a 3D map of your home for help with a remodel. Aire could search your home for a specific person, or patrol your home for anomalies. These are all features that could set it apart from a traditional security camera setup, or a traditional drone, but who knows if they'll ever get built.
Aire's autonomous skills are very limited right now: it can take off and land from a wireless charging dock if it can see the dock, and it can take a photo when you ask it to over Alexa.
Aire is supposed to ship in December of 2018. The retail price is supposed to be 1,499 USD.