Antigravity has announced a new accessory package for its A1 drone, called the Follow Me bundle, which adds more accurate tracking and gesture controls. The A1 is the debut drone of the company, which combines 360 degree cameras from its parent company Insta360 with point of view goggles and a one handed point and fly controller. It was found to be a lot of fun to fly, and it lets users reframe footage after the fact by cropping into the 360 degree video to focus on the most interesting action. The new bundle is not a successor to the drone, since it includes propeller guards, a watch remote and a ring remote that are built for hands free shooting and tracking.
The Follow Me bundle is available now as a complete package with the A1 drone for $799, and as an accessory kit for $340, while existing A1 owners can buy the kit at a discounted price of $272. The watch and ring improve tracking by combining visual tracking with the built in Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) of the Watch Remote, which allows the drone to lock onto moving subjects more reliably. The pair also works as a gesture control system, so users no longer need the one handed controller and goggles to fly the A1 and capture footage. This makes the package lighter, although it is more limited than flying with the full set of controls.
The new control method is called Drag to Fly. After the user selects the subject on the watch display, holding down the button on the Ring Remote starts the gestures, with an audible confirmation and a vibration from the watch. Pointing and moving the hand left, right, up or down makes the drone follow, and rotating the arm and wrist inward brings it closer, while the opposite movement sends it away. A reviewer found the system responsive but noted some limits, since the drone cannot move through all three planes at once, and the button has to be released and pressed again to adjust both position and distance. The Watch Remote also has touchscreen controls for launching the drone, switching video modes and starting pre programmed flight moves such as vertical spirals, flyovers and an antigravity line, which combines a climb with a sudden dive towards the subject.
The hardware has some drawbacks. The watch is chunky, with a touchscreen, a manual button and USB-C charging, and it runs for roughly five hours when paired with a drone, although three drone batteries are likely to run down before then. Its strap links and the Velcro strap of the ring felt flimsy. Antigravity advises outdoor use with at least 2 meters of vertical clearance, and an experimental feature lowers this to a meter. The four propeller guards clip over each pair of propellers, but they prevent the arms from folding, which reduces portability. The kit lets users fly the A1 without a helper, which matters because flying a first person view drone alone with goggles breaks the Visual Line of Sight rule in the United States and Europe.
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