If you’re looking to make a product that is basically idiot-proof, well, testing that theory may not be so easy. Who’s going to volunteer to test it and be labeled an idiot? A robotics firm developing a new kind of drone turned to a different population to help them out: Stoners.
(No, The Cannifornian is not suggesting that stoners are idiots. But when that high kicks in, you’re not exactly at your sharpest, you know? Your humble blogger found it hard to follow the plot of a “Jackass” movie once, and those movies don’t have plots.)
The Snap drone features cages designed to protect users’ fingers from the rotating blades. (Courtesy Vantage Robotics)
Vantage Robotics, which is rolling out the Snap video drone, wanted to make their device as easy to use as possible. So when it came time to test it, founder Tobin Fisher told Inverse.com, he headed to San Francisco’s famous Haight Street, home of some of the city’s most fervent cannabis lovers, to test its ease of use.
“They proved to be a really good test audience,” Fisher told Inverse. ” ‘Can people who are heavily stoned used the test product?’”
After showing off the test drone to Haight’s pot smokers and dealers, Fisher said, they became very interested in the device, asking him for updates about features he had told them he was working on.
Vantage calls the Snap drone “the first safe portable flying camera.” It’s designed with lightweight cages enveloping the blades that make it fly, to keep users’ fingers safe from cuts as they handle the device. Winner of the Richard Branson Extreme Tech Challenge, the device will begin shipping to customers next month.
Check out a video touting the Snap drone’s features:
To read the entire article, go to Inverse.com.
