New | China’s Zero Zero Robotics comes up with new drone for ‘selfies’

China is poised to pad its lead in the global market for commercial unmanned aerial vehicles, more widely known as drones, as start-up Zero Zero Robotics releases a new smaller, consumer-friendly device.

“We are opening up a brand new market for drones,” Zero Zero founder and chief executive Wang Mengqi told the South China Morning Post.

Wang described the company’s new Hover Camera drone as the first “proximity drone” in the market, designed for consumers to take selfies instead of doing aerial photography.

Technology research firm IDC has forecast global shipments of mainland Chinese-made camera drones -- widely popularised by industry giant DJI -- would hit three million units by 2019, up from an estimated 390,000 this year.

Zero Zero’s new drone is about the size and shape of a paperback novel, which a user unfolds to reveal a device that is 3.6 cms thin, 22 cms long and 18 cms wide.

Wang claimed the Hover drone, which will release commercially at the end of this year, is the first such product in the market equipped with so-called artificial neuron network technology, which mimics how the human brain works.

That feature enables the drone to recognise its user’s face, body and the environment, according to Zero Zero. It also makes it possible for the drone to track a user, while avoiding obstacles along the way.