Wireless iBubble Underwater Drone Will Revolutionize the Scuba Diving Experience

[g2]

Taking 'selfies' to the next level...

The iBubble drone.

Wonderful name (DCS, anyone?). I volunteer to be the first person to hack one.

 

[tamas970]

"Free from heavy video equipment - Would love to see it carrying my ~5kg Hartenberger light and two subtronic nova strobes on 1+1m arms The nauticam RX100IV housing wouldn't matter much I suppose...

 

[John A Lewis]

No working prototype, just a list of things a nonexistent product will do once they've actually built one.

Until that happens, and a unit has been built and tested extensively in the field, nothing to see here.

 

[KeithG]

No working prototype, just a list of things a nonexistent product will do once they've actually built one.

Until that happens, and a unit has been built and tested extensively in the field, nothing to see here.

Maybe they can use some of the surplus Mars One gear? Oh, right. They have nothing either....

 

[Kharon]

Bet it will cost a fortune - IF it ever get's beyond the "conceptual" stage

 

[kelemvor]

"Free from heavy video equipment - Would love to see it carrying my ~5kg Hartenberger light and two subtronic nova strobes on 1+1m arms The nauticam RX100IV housing wouldn't matter much I suppose...

From their (awful) website: "iBubble works with most action sports cameras, including GoPro® Hero"



Looks like it's not targeted at the high end photography market but instead is marketed for vacation divers who want videos of themselves diving. It might be a good replacement for selfie sticks... If priced similarly.

In all seriousness, it could be a good thing for gopro divers. Assuming it produces *steady* shots, the output would be a lot better than what you get with various gopro mounts today - short of using a tripod or laying on the reef (yep, I've seen that at BHB).

From the ibubble website:

Once the battery is empty, the drone automatically rises to the surface. LED lights make it easy to locate.

Yikes! Sounds like there will be lots of lost ibubbles if they don't fix that!

[video=youtube;HH4bnHnhqw8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH4bnHnhqw8[/video]

 

[BFRedrocks]

Any thoughts on this? Their indiegogo pre-sale started this morning...$1299 + shipping pre-sale cost (40% off retail price according to them). It sounds really great and they've done some amazing work to improve it, but I'm still on the fence regarding my own use of it. Seems like it could be difficult to fly places with and I'm not sure how it would be though of from dive operations.

 

[flareside]

From the indiegogo campaign,

"Given that high frequency radio transmission, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth don’t work underwater, we had to find another way to ensure communication between the diver and the drone. We’ve looked at other industries and eventually found a solution mixing the best of marine mammals’ echolocation..."​

One can only hope a chattery pod of dolphins doesn't come along and your drone homes in and follows them off instead.

 

[kelemvor]

From the indiegogo campaign,

"Given that high frequency radio transmission, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth don’t work underwater, we had to find another way to ensure communication between the diver and the drone. We’ve looked at other industries and eventually found a solution mixing the best of marine mammals’ echolocation..."​

One can only hope a chattery pod of dolphins doesn't come along and your drone homes in and follows them off instead.

The resulting video would be AWESOME if you ever recovered the drone!

 

[KeithG]

current...

How well does the drone function in current?