The Loon Copter Swims Flies and Floats

Throughout their historic ascension into tech relevancy, multi-rotor drones and their pilots have actively avoided bodies of water as if they were some sort of quadcopter kryptonite. However, a team of engineers from Oakland University’s Embedded Systems Research Laboratory just unveiled a semi-amphibious drone as capable of pulling off aerial flight as it is of executing sub-aquatic navigation. Dubbed the Loon Copter, the aircraft is reportedly the team’s third prototype of the design and is currently one of ten semifinalists in Dubai’s Drones for Good competition. Is there anything a drone won’t be able to do?

Like any other remote-controlled aircraft, the Loon Copter takes off and flies with a simple start of its rotors and a flick of a joystick. As mentioned above, its incredibly innovative difference lies with how it reacts while descending upon a body of water. Before officially taking the plunge, pilots simply land the craft on the water’s surface, where it then has the ability to either float in one spot or move around via its props. To submerge the aircraft, the team needs only to activate the drone’s onboard water pump and begin filling up its ballast chamber.

As the drone starts to gain weight (and sink), it then tips over to its side while sinking, effectively turning it into a multi-rotor underwater submarine. After its buoyancy chamber fills and it’s completely submerged, the Loon Copter’s props re-engage and allow for the pilot to then drive it underwater, rotors forward. Underwater, the drone has the ability to move up or down, turn left or right, and record video via its onboard camera. As expected, bringing the aircraft back to the water’s surface is as easy as just draining its buoyancy chamber of the contained water. Upon reaching the surface, the Loon Copter then rights itself and is once again ready for aerial flight.

Related: Forget DJI and Parrot: Here’s 13 little-known drone companies that made a splash at CES

“The Loon Copter can loiter on the surface of the water without energy usage,” the drone’s lead scientist Dr. Osamah Rawashdeh tells Gizmag. “It can also change and control depth with little power (no propeller use). Not having to propellers to change depth or resurface also has an advantage when obstacles (e.g. structures or vegetation) are close to the drone. We can resurface without hitting any obstacles.”

Though the Loon Copter looks like the ultimate addition to any hobbyist’s arsenal, Rawashdeh says the group intends for it to be used in a variety of practical ways. Whether it be for underwater pipeline inspections, search-and-rescue procedures, or studying marine life, the Oakland University team has high hopes for the amount of good it can do. Dr. Rawashdeh even went so far as to suggest the Loon Copter of becoming a reliable shark deterrent that is, it would be able to spot sharks along coastlines, drop in near their location, then scare them away from swimmers.

Despite its multi-faceted skillset, the third generation Loon Copter does come with a few caveats. For starters, its onboard camera does not possess the ability to actively stream video to the pilot’s controller (it must be viewed after a flight or swim ends), nor can it operate much more than a few meters underwater before losing range with its remote control. As research and development continues to move forward on the Loon Copter, Dr. Rawashdeh says the team intends to include these features in the future.

s g n l :Touch your sound

A new gadget on Kickstarter is basically designed to make you feel like a secret agent. It's called Sgnl, and it lets you make phone calls just by wearing a wristband and touching your ear, with your fingers acting as the receiver.

There's no speaker on the device  instead, audio is directed into your ear through vibrations that are sent through your body, into your wrist and up to the fingers touching your ear; a mic is built into the band. It's not a new concept, but it's a neat twist on the not-very-cool Bluetooth headset.

The project comes from Innomdle Lab, a startup that's been spun out of Samsung. This is its first project, and it's launching with a Kickstarter campaign looking for $50,000, which it's very nearly reached at the time of this writing. Sgnl units are selling for around $139.

There's one other interesting twist to Sgnl. While you can wear it as a standalone wristband, it's meant to be used as a watch strap, either for an analog watch or a smartwatch. It definitely looks a bit clunkier than a normal wristband, but integrating it straight into another gadget that you're already wearing is a nice idea, as it's one less gadget to keep track of.

This is probably something that could be built right into a smartwatch in the future, but for the time being, Sngl seems like a cool, if totally unnecessary way to take a phone call without pulling out your phone. It'll probably make for a great party trick, too, although I'm not convinced that anyone will look suave while wearing this thing, as Innomdle's Kickstarter video wants you to think

The iPhone Printer Case

The founder of hardware startup Prynt has lined up a collection of his company’s prototypes on a table. He’s arranged them in order, so as you scan from one end of the line to the other, you can chart the evolution of Prynt’s device from idea to finished product. The models all vary in shape, size, and materials. One early model is bright pink and feels waxy, another has more physical buttons than the rest. Some are just circuit boards. Though they all certainly share some DNA with his company’s finished product: a mini-printer that connects to your phone and spits out photos.

Perrot seems a little stunned by how many prototypes there are. “Now I remember what I did in the last two years,” he says.

In November of 2014, Prynt started showing off an earlier version of its device. The French company had just soft-launched at a hardware demo day and was ready well, almost read to bring its product to consumers. So what does a young hardware startup do when it wants to test the market waters? Head to Kickstarter!

For the last year, Prynt’s been on Kickstarter, and now, finally, units are going to ship. The device is also being made available for pre-order on Prynt’s own site ($149 for the printer, phone adapter, and 10 pieces of photo paper).

Just like the preview we saw last year, the Prynt case is a retro-looking box reminiscent of a Polaroid camera, and it uses mini Zink photo paper strips ($25 for a pack of 50) to print the pictures stored on your phone. The device uses thermal printing technology, so there’s no ink, just heat, to create the image. The Prynt app has all the Instagrammy features you want filters, namely plus other effects, like stickers and meme-ify options. The adapter that connects your phone is sold separately, but that’s a decision the company made to allow for multiple adapters to all work with the same base unit. There are currently adapters for iPhone 6s, 6, 5s, 5c, 5, and Samsung Galaxy S5 and S4. It comes in black or white, and while it’s definitely bulkier than a standard phone case, it’s fairly sleek for a printer. It’s a little plastic-y, a bit toyish, and there’s a little finagling to be done to get the adapter connected. But, really, that’s OK because Prynt is a whole lot of fun.

Get Physical

The goal of the team was always to create something physical. “Hardware is hard work,” says Perrot. “It’s so difficult, but that’s what we like that you create something that people can touch. When you are making an app, you are not only competing against other applications that do the same thing, you are competing against every application on your phone. Now it’s more about getting people’s attention when you have something they can hold, you have their attention.”

As a bit of a surprise, Prynt has added an augmented reality component to its device a feature that wasn’t originally revealed when the startup first announced the product.

Within the Prynt app, after you capture a photo, you take a short, six-second video afterward that “attaches” itself to the photo via the cloud. After you print it, anyone can use the app to scan the photo and reveal the video. Soon, Perrot says, you will be able to attach other types of content: a song clip, a still shot of something, GPS coordinates. Perrot says you could almost use it like a digital business card, taking a picture of yourself and a person and attaching an image of your phone number or contact information.

You have the option to make this content private as well, so only certain people can unlock it. It’s sort of like a QR code, but vastly cooler. The effect is a novelty, to be sure, but it’s a really fun one and it works really well. It’s a nice, easy intro to augmented reality wrapped in a product anyone will want, and everyone can understand: an Instagram-like photo printer.

The case connects directly to your phone via microUSB or Lightning. The team fiddled with Bluetooth but found it too complicated. “It was such a struggle to pair every time you wanted to use the product,” says Perrot. And really, part of the reasoning for the “simpler” connection process was a small homage to what’s a nostalgic piece of technology. “We just wanted people to have the same experience as with old printing cameras you take a picture…and it just prints.”

Canon P900

The push to add more megapixels has slowed among point-and-shoots in recent years, but that hasn't stopped companies from expanding optical zoom to new heights. While it seems like only yesterday that 10x and 20x zooms where technological feats that we could hardly fathom, now we see 50x zooms on a daily basis and hardly give it a second thought.

Even so, Nikon decided that 50x just wasn't enough and pushed its new Coolpix P900 (MSRP $599.95) to a jaw-dropping 83x zoom (24-2000mm equivalent)–easily blowing away Canon SX60's longest ever 65x zoom. With a range like that, there isn't a shot that the P900 can't cover.

That kind of zoom can do wonders for people shooting anything from wildlife to the moon, but it does come with drawbacks. Steadying shots at 2000mm can be nearly impossible, even with Nikon's built-in image stabilization, and image quality suffers badly at full zoom. However, if you're looking for a camera that can reach out and snag a shot of just about any subject that you can lay your eyes on, the P900 has you covered.

Design & Handling

Like many superzoom cameras, the P900 is designed with a classic DSLR-style grip, but with a massive fixed lens on the front. Due to the P900's extreme lens, it's slightly larger than other bridge cameras–even the Panasonic FZ1000, which features a 1-inch sensor. Even the flash has to be built a bit differently; because the lens barrel is so long, Nikon has made an enormous flash that towers over the camera so the lens doesn't block the light.

 Even with its increased size, the P900 feels well built and not too front-heavy. This is mostly due to the deep grip and tactile leather-like material that covers it. However, when you're zoomed to 2000mm, two hands are absolutely required if you want any hope of getting a steady shot. Still, it's light enough the you can hold it in one hand–something you couldn't do if it were a DSLR.

The button layout is fairly standard for a Nikon point-and-shoot. The top controls include a zoom lever around the shutter release, power switch, function button, as well as both a command and mode dial. The rear controls are in a basic array and include dedicated buttons for WiFi and recording video. The side of the lens has an additional zoom lever and a snap-back zoom button.

The rear LCD does flip out and swivel, which is very useful when shooting overhead or at other tough angles. That said, it's not the best LCD. It's also not a touchscreen, but at this price point, with an 83x zoom, you can't expect everything

Performance

Designing a camera with a 24-2000mm equivalent zoom is an exercise in compromise. The P900 takes quite a few hits to its performance for the ability to reach out and touch the stars. That's not to say that it won't provide quality that's acceptable for people that want the absolute longest zoom on the market. But if you're looking for something to give professional quality images at 2000mm, the P900 is going to be a letdown.

Let's start with explaining how the sensor relates to the lens and its zooming ability. The 1/2.3-inch sensor gives the P900 a 5.6x crop factor and allows it to reach the 2000mm mark. If Nikon wanted to get better quality, it would have to use a larger sensor, which would mean dealing with an even larger lens. Obviously you can't make the lens much larger, so Nikon is stuck with this small sensor that you'd find in any other point-and-shoot.

 This small sensor limits both resolution and low-light performance. The P900 is capable of taking shots at an amazing range of focal lengths, but the further out you go, the worse the quality becomes. The wide angle shots aren't too bad, but once you get out toward the telephoto end of the focal range, the images are pretty much only good for social media posts due to grain and overall softness.

Another issue that stems from the small sensor is high-ISO performance. This comes in play in two different ways. The most obvious was is in low-light, when you need to bump up the ISO to properly expose the scene. These shots will look grainy, though you should be able to use most of the ISO range thanks to noise reduction. The other issue comes from shooting handheld shots at long focal lengths. When you're shooting at 1000mm plus, you're going to need a very fast shutter. That might mean bumping up your ISO even when it's light out, which results in a loss of even more detail. I wouldn't recommend venturing far above ISO 800.

 Video quality is also a victim of the small sensor. Frankly, the video captured on the P900 is underwhelming even under perfect lab conditions. I suppose if you absolutely need the zoom, it's a good reason to pick it up. However, if you absolutely need to zoom in 2000mm for video, I have to question what you're filming. Otherwise, you can pick up dozens of cameras or camcorders in this price range that will produce superior footage and give you decent zooming capabilities.

Shooting Experience

Shooting with the P900 was surprisingly pleasant. I'm not usually a fan of shooting with bridge cameras–especially one that I knew was going to lack the sharpness and performance I would be happy with–but the P900 wasn't terrible. This isn't to say that it performed up to my liking when I got the images to my computer, but the process of capturing the images was, dare I say, enjoyable.

The controls are very straight forward and have almost no learning curve for anyone that's used either a DSLR or compact point-and-shoot. I do wish the buttons had a little more feedback to them, though. A few times I wasn't sure if I pressed anything, especially the record button, due to the combination of slow response time and lack of tactile feedback. The top and rear command dials are also a bit on the loose side and rotate a bit too easily for my liking.

The EVF isn't amazing, but it isn't the worst thing I've looked through either. I did find myself using the LCD more than I usually do when shooting wide shots–only switching to the EVF for longer focal lengths. For the price you're paying for the P900, the EVF and LCD are no slouches.

On the subject of longer focal lengths, the camera zooms very slowly. Granted it has a lot of zoom to cover, but if you're hoping to snap to 2000mm quickly, you'll be disappointed. On average it took 6.3 seconds to go from 18mm to 2000mm, which is plenty of time to lose that perfect moment. One useful feature is the "snap-zoom" feature. It works when you're zoomed in on a subject, automatically zooming out momentarily, allowing you to find your subject. It then snaps back so you're ready to fire away.