Smartphones Take Flight on Kickstarter With PhoneDrone

Up in the sky! It’s a bird; it’s a plane; it’s – a smartphone?

Fresh from the increasingly clever world of drone crowdfunding, the xCraft PhoneDrone is one of many Kickstarter projects discovering innovative new applications for drones.

In essence, PhoneDrone is what its name implies – a drone that carries your smartphone as payload, allowing users to deploy their iPhone or Android phone as an autonomous aerial camera. Using a free flight planning app, the DronePhone follows its “master” on a virtual leash and can be programmed to fly specific altitudes, follow the user and stream video to another mobile device. While selfie drones are certainly not new to the drone scene, marrying a small UAV with a smartphone is a new trick.

One advantage of using a smartphone-laden drone for videography is not facing any transfer problems from an onboard UAV camera to a smart device given the fact that the videos or photos are already downloaded to the device automatically and seamlessly.

Runners or extreme sports enthusiasts can use PhoneDrone as a “personal camera operator” to record performance. Selfie fans can use the UAV as a very long “selfie stick,” and users of Periscope or Meerkat can broadcast personal real-time feeds from their flying smartphones.

The DronePhone has been touted as a beginner’s mini-drone since very little UAV experience is required.

“Since we are just giving it wings we are able to cut out all of the things that normally make drones so expensive,” an xCraft spokesperson stated. “Everyone has a smartphone in their pocket these days. Not everyone has a GPS Controlled flying phone that does what you tell it to do.”

Missions are set before the PhoneDrone is launched via the Flight Command app – users choose from mission, follow-me or joyride modes. Once the flight arms are unfolded and the PhoneDrone is place on a smooth surface, it’s ready for flight. The UAV can also be paired with another smart device to allow for more user-interface control. The drone is charged via any USB source – or swap batteries for extended flight times.

As of May 1, PhoneDrone boasted 240 Kickstarter backers pledging $54,470 towards the $250,000 goal. Early-bird backers may order a ready-to-fly model for $249. More information about xCraft can be found at xcraft.io