--- description: This wearable drone photographs where you can't title: Meet Nixie, the Selfie Drone You Wear on Your Wrist image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b31a5ca44b30f13/698768ea524fc059b0deabd6/nixie-selfie-drone.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [LightBox](/tag/time-section-lightbox/) ## LightBox Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Meet Nixie, the Selfie Drone You Wear on Your Wrist by [Erica Fahr Campbell](/author/erica-fahr-campbell/) ## Erica Fahr Campbell Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 3, 2014 9:56 PM CUT  by [Erica Fahr Campbell](/author/erica-fahr-campbell/) ## Erica Fahr Campbell Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 3, 2014 9:56 PM CUT Wearable cameras might be nothing new: the [_GoPro_](http://gopro.com/ "undefined"), a camera you can mount to just about anything, has been around since 2002, and 2014 saw the public releases of [_Google Glass_](https://www.google.com/glass/start/ "undefined") and the [Autographer](http://www.autographer.com/ "undefined"). But now the developers of a new quadcopter drone hope to revolutionize the way we take photos of ourselves. Called [_Nixie_](https://flynixie.com/ "undefined"), this is a flying camera that straps on like a watch, but can dismount from your arm, shoot into the sky, take a photo, and fly right back again (thanks to a range of sensors powered by [Intel’s Edison chip](http://readwrite.com/2014/01/07/meet-edison-intel-tiny-plan-to-power-the-next-generation-of-wearables "undefined").) [The flying drone just won the grand prize](https://makeit.intel.com/finalists "undefined") at Intel’s _Make it Wearable Challenge,_ after an open call for new wearable technology ideas that use the company’s flagship microchips. The brainchild of Christoph Kohstall, a Postdoctoral researcher at Standford, and Jelena Jovanovic, formerly of Google, Nixie is still in the prototyping phase, but developers say it will weigh less than a tenth of a pound and capture HD quality images. Nixie also boasts a panorama mode for aerial 360° arcs; a so-called “boomerang” mode for taking shots at programmed fixed distances from the owner; a “follow me” mode for, as the name implies, following the owner while they are in motion, and a “hover” mode for near-impossible high shots. But this does raise some questions: Will Nixie be able to identify the owner in a crowded space? And while nailing algorithms for functionality is key, wearablilty is arguably equally important. Most importantly, the finished version of Nixie will have to integrate in its owner’s daily life. After all, a wearable drone camera will only really succeed if you can actually wear it. One thing is sure: Intel’s $500,000 cash prize will help address these questions. --- **_Erica Fahr Campbell_** _is an Associate Photo Editor at TIME_ --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3559818/meet-nixie-the-selfie-drone-you-wear-on-your-wrist/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3559818/meet-nixie-the-selfie-drone-you-wear-on-your-wrist/"},"headline":"Meet Nixie, the Selfie Drone You Wear on Your Wrist","datePublished":"2014-11-03T21:56:02.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:03:36.719Z","description":"This wearable drone photographs where you can't","url":"https://time.com/3559818/meet-nixie-the-selfie-drone-you-wear-on-your-wrist/","keywords":["LightBox","Tech","Technology","camera","photography","Drone","Intel"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b31a5ca44b30f13/698768ea524fc059b0deabd6/nixie-selfie-drone.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Erica Fahr Campbell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/erica-fahr-campbell/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b31a5ca44b30f13/698768ea524fc059b0deabd6/nixie-selfie-drone.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"nixie-selfie-drone","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-lightbox/","name":"LightBox"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3559818/meet-nixie-the-selfie-drone-you-wear-on-your-wrist/","name":"Meet Nixie, the Selfie Drone You Wear on Your Wrist"}}]}] ```