Ziphius gets fully funded on Kickstarter, expected to ship in March

Posted on 23/07/2013 by Brian Heater

Now that's what we like to see. Our first-ever Insert Coin: New Challengers winner has secured full funding over on Kickstarter -- and just in the nick of time. With just over a day to go before the end of its fundraising period, Ziphius has managed to pass its lofty $125,000 goal. That means we can expect to see the cool little aquatic drone shipping to backers in March of next year, just in time for the warm weather. And we'd be remiss if we didn't mention that you too can live the crowdfunding dream. We've opened up entries for our second Insert Coin competition, as of late last month. It may not get you all the way to a final product, but with $25,000 up for grabs, it's a heck of a head start.

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Source: Kickstarter

Ziphius aquatic drone DIY Edition for makers offered up as Kickstarter reward

Posted on 10/07/2013 by Brian Heater

Ziphius, our first-ever Insert Coin winner, is halfway through its Kickstarter campaign and is looking for a little extra steam. As incentive, the company is offering up a pretty cool alternative reward for donors. Pledge $99, and you can get your hands on the DIY Edition of the aquatic drone. The kit includes a 1080p HD camera on a servo motor, Raspberry Pi and ATMEGA microcontrollers, a microSD card and a slew of other components to help you build your own Ziphius as an aquatic, terrestrial or aerial drone. The company's included an image of its own homebrewed land version for inspiration (see: above). More info on the offering can be found in the source link below.

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Source: Kickstarter

Ziphius aquatic drone hits Kickstarter, we go hands-on with an updated prototype

Posted on 24/06/2013 by Sarah Silbert

If you followed our Insert Coin: New Challengers contest at our first-ever Expand event, you may recognize this guy. The Ziphius, an WiFi-enabled aquatic drone powered by a Raspberry Pi, won $25,000 in prize money back in San Francisco, and three months later it's taking the next big plunge: launching on Kickstarter. The bot launched its crowd-funding campaign tonight -- at Engadget+ gdgt live in NYC, no less -- and the Ziphius team says the $125,000 in requested money will go toward refining the device's mold for the final-production version. As you can see from our gallery below, the package already looks sleeker, and it comes in pink along with several other new colors. Backers of all pocket sizes will be rewarded with everything from their name on the website ($1 pledge) to a Ziphius of their own ($195 and up). Click the source to check out the Kickstarter page for yourself and donate if you're so inclined; the project has 29 days to meet that lofty funding goal.

Gallery: Ziphius aquatic drone hands-on

Zach Honig contributed to this report.

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Source: Kickstarter

Insert Coin: New Challengers winner Ziphius backstage at Expand (video)

Posted on 18/03/2013 by Alexis Santos

Now that our Insert Coin: New Challengers contestants had duked it out and the judges have made their decision, we have a winner: Ziphius. Not only did the bot win $20,000 thanks to deliberation by our judges, but it came home with our $5,000 reader's choice prize too. Victorious and $25,000 richer, the brains behind the aquatic drone joined us backstage to chat about their project. For the full interview, check out our video after the break.

Follow all of Engadget's Expand coverage live from San Francisco right here!

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The Daily Roundup for 03.16.2013

Posted on 16/03/2013 by David Fishman

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

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Insert Coin finalist: Ziphius aquatic drone hands-on (video)

Posted on 16/03/2013 by Richard Lai

Joining the handful of Insert Coin finalists at Expand is Azorean's cute Ziphius aquatic drone. While Fort Mason is located by the seaside, the folks actually brought their own little pool along to let their Raspberry Pi-powered robot splash around in; though it can happily operate in seawater as well and thus adding more use case possibilities -- be it for entertainment (including autonomous ball-chasing, for instance) or for environmental monitoring. Through a direct WiFi connection we were able to use an Android tablet to control both the Ziphius' surprisingly powerful motors and its camera's vertical position, as well as watching a live video feed at the same time.

The final version of the drone will come with an interchangeable chassis to suit different purposes or simply for personalization, and internally it'll be equipped with Raspberry Pi's upcoming high quality camera module, which will enable even better streaming and onboard 1080p 30fps capture. According to CEO Edmundo Nobre, the Kickstarter campaign will launch before the end of the month, and he's hoping to bring the Ziphius to the mass market with a price point at around $200 to $250. Not bad, huh? Check out our hands-on video after the break.

Gallery: Insert Coin: Ziphius aquatic drone hands-on