A paper airplane drone is cool, but a paper airplane drone that has a camera on it which streams video over Wi-Fi to a Google Cardboard headset is just awesome. That’s the aim of company PowerUp Toys, in the followup to their previously successful Kickstarter campaign which simply brought powered flight to paper airplanes. Now they’re moving onwards and upwards with their latest Kickstarter campaign called PowerUp FPV.
The idea behind PowerUp FPV is simple – it puts a rotating camera on the back of the plane which then streams to Google Cardboard, allowing you to ‘Experience flight from a First Person View paper airplane drone with a LIVE streaming camera’. The live streaming video uses Wi-fi, and can stream up to 300-feet to a Google Cardboard headset paired to your phone to playback the video. Partnering with well known drone maker Parrot to bring the wireless video, PowerUp FPV certainly offers a good looking and seemingly technically accessible product in a compact, well made package.
There’s multiple ways to control the drone, you can use Cardboard to control flight by tilting your head in first person mode, switch to a traditional gamepad style using your phone as the controller, or go for an auto-pilot assist mode.
The plane itself can travel at 20mph for up to 10 minutes with the 550mAh LiPo battery (it’s hot-swappable if you grab a 2nd battery), and flies even in windy conditions. The PowerUp FPV also includes auto-detect smarts which can stop the propellors spinning before a crash. The module with the camera and powered propellors attaches to your paper airplane with a frame reinforced with durable carbon fiber and nylon.
Camera wise, the unit has an ultra-wide lens to capture all the details of your flight and you can record all your video, still shots and audio onto a microSD card that you can insert inside the PowerUp FPV, and download to your phone afterards. And of course you’re streaming to your phone anyway.
With 637 backers and over $120,000 in pledges, the Kickstarter campaign is already funded. PowerUp Toys expects to start delivering the product to backers in June next year though this is Kickstarter and anything can happen, but with a successful Kickstarter campaign already under their belt, they do have some experience here. For just US$179 you can get your standard package which includes aPowerUp FPV module, battery and of course a Cardboard viewer.
If this looks like something you’d be interested in, head over to their Kickstarter campaign page and back them.
