Dobby: A pocket sized drone to click selfies

Our obsession with selfies is set to touch new heights with something called Dobby from ZeroTech. Wondering if Dobby is some new smartphone with a good front camera? It isn’t, actually. Dobby is a drone- yes, you heard it right.

Dobby is a small,"pocket drone," with arms that fold out when an emergency selfie opportunity presents itself. It's not a truly hands-free experience, as you'll need your phone to control it, but it's packed with an array of smart features that make it really interesting.

Dobby isn’t exactly new in the market. It's been on sale in China since summer. However, this weekend, ZeroTech brought Dobby to Berlin to celebrate its US and European launch.

Dobby comes with a sleek design that looks somewhat like a giant bar of soap. Until you fold out the arms, at which point it starts looking more drone-like. Perched on the front is a 13-megapixel camera, and on the underside is where you'll find the removable battery and sonar/downward camera for indoor positioning. Somewhere hidden inside of Dobby are GPS and GLONASS sensors for satellite positioning.

Engadget reports ZeroTech saying that the camera is similar to that found in phones like the Xiaomi Mi4, perhaps with the notion that a mobile-style shooter takes better personal photos - no fisheye, or wide angle weirdness. The similarities with a phone don't end there, as there's also a Snapdragon 801 processor running the show.

With automatic target tracking, the Dobby drone follows a moving object. That means you select a person or any living/nonliving thing currently in the camera's view (via the app), and the drone will follow it which is indeed amazing considering the size and low cost of the Dobby drone.

Dobby may not really match something like a DJI in shooting smooth high-quality video but that’s not what its built for. It’s USP is its small size that can fit in your pocket that you can carry along anywhere without a doubt.