The waterproof Lily Camera tosses complex drone operation in the river

Ever thought about picking up a drone, but aren’t ready to apply for a pilot’s license? Well, Lily Camera might be an option for you. Equipped with a 1080p camera capable of shooting up to 120fps (at 720p), the waterproof, 2.8lb, blue-eyed cutie of a drone follows a subject at altitudes between 5 feet and 50 feet at speeds up to 25mph.

Launching the Lily Camera is as simple as tossing it. Yes, you read that right. You order a drone, it ships to your house, you open the box, presumably charge a few things, then you take it outside and throw it. Or throw it into the river. Or put it in your backpack – it’s about the same weight of a laptop – hike to a neighboring city, board a train to the next province or state, rent a bicycle and ride it across town and throw it off a bridge. Up to you.

The Lily Camera uses a bevy of sensors and cameras to manage itself. There is a companion app for setting up parameters, and a tracking device which can be placed in a pocket or wrist-worn in a waterproof casing, but with those pieces in place the Lily is simply a toss away from doing it’s thing for the next 18-22 minutes.

And it’s thing is pretty cool.

According to Lily: “Lily is the world’s first throw-and-shoot camera. All you have to do is throw it in the air to start shooting. Lily flies itself and uses GPS and computer vision to follow you around. Lily is waterproof, ultra-compact, and shoots HD pictures and videos.”

To add to the “I want one” factor is the option to land on water. Those of us who like to waterski, kayak or take part in other water sports that could benefit from a UAV capturing the action will appreciate that Lily will follow us without the need to worry about what the drone is doing. It’ll follow us around the lake, and when we’re done or the battery is spent, we can land it on the water and it’ll float.

It also handles sound differently than many other aerial devices. The microphone for Lily is on the tracking device, and automatically syncs with Lily. So the drone is in the air, but the audio is captured at ground level. Makes sense.

So there it is. Check out their video and see if you need one. At an initial price of $499 and climbing to a retail price of $999 sometime after mid-June, the Lily is priced well for a device of this kind. We’re hoping to go hands-on with Lily in the future, as final product won’t ship until February 2016.

Here are some specs of this fun new product: