Shenzen-based Remo showcased its first product at CES today, a 4K, AI-enabled camera called the Obsbot Tail which follows subjects around like a dedicated cinematographer. A 12-megapixel camera with 3.5x optical zoom sits on a 3-axis gimbal, which swivels around smoothly. It’s meant to be ideal for capturing scenes at the skate park, basketball court, or dance: anything where a lot of movement is involved. Or if you’re not regularly shooting yourself doing skateboarding tricks, it’s also useful for YouTubers who want to level up their videos without having to ask a friend to film.
The Obsbot recognizes various gesture controls — you can flash your palm towards the camera to get it to lock its focus on you; putting up a peace sign will activate zoom; and making an ‘I love you’ hand signal stops the zoom. All of the gestures worked seamlessly when I tried it out on the showfloor, but the camera did have trouble locking onto me at times because of how crowded it was.
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An LED light at the base flashes green when the camera locks onto a subject, and red when the storage is full. The Obsbot is lightweight and small enough at 7.3 inches by 3.3 inches to be easily portable, and the battery life is a little over two hours. It also has six different shooting modes, like the ability to compose a shot that only frames the subject’s upper body.
The Obsbot is launching on Kickstarter next week, where a representative told me it will be priced starting at around $450. That’s a lot more expensive than the $250 Google Clips, which promised to use its algorithm to detect and capture precious moments, especially when it comes to children. But Clips wasn’t all that effective, and it also doesn’t have the Obsbot’s range of motion to capture more dynamic footage. As with all crowdfunded projects, though, we’ll have to wait and see if Remo will deliver on all its promises.
This article is from The Verge
