Where you lead, the Lily Camera drone will follow

Don’t call Lily Camera a drone. With its dome body and four rotors, it certainly looks the part, but Lily Camera CEO Antonie Balaresque insists that it’s a flying camera.

Which the 2.5-pound device certainly is.

Unlike traditional drones, which are designed for flying, Lily Camera is focused on its subject. When it ships later this year, it will feature a 1080p, 60 FPS camera and another 720p, 120 FPS camera, both of which can be trained on you. The flyer will use its built-in GPS to stay fixed on a little Lily tracking device worn on your wrist or in your pocket.

It will also, according to Balaresque, learn your face. The final Lily will have a computer vision system that will recognize your face and then work to always keep you in the frame.

“You throw this in the air, go about your business and at the end, you’ll have a high-quality video,” said the camera's cofounder Henry Bradlow.

You can control Lily Camera with this control pod, or just use the built-in GPS to let it track you.

Instead of a big radio controller or even tablet-based app to control flight, Lily Camera will fly itself, following and capture the best moments. (Think of it as a flying selfie photographer of sorts.) Balaresque noted that the pocket GPS will tell Lily Camera when you might be jumping or falling, for example; a quad of buttons makes the device either fly closer to or further away from you, or lets it circle to your left or right — while always keeping you in frame.

It could be right at home on the shelves of Best Buy, alongside other camera equipment. “Fixed point cameras are limited by skills of the photographer,” Balaresque said. "A flying camera takes it to another level — much better footage.”

Lily Camera is still months from being a finished product available for consumer purchase. The device that Mashable saw a few weeks ago was 3D printed with limited communication and vision-tracking capabilities. We launched it into the sky on a windy afternoon in Manhattan, and the device did hold its own, not getting blow astray. Balaresque had to register his face through an iPhone app, since Lily Camera can’t do it on its own just yet; however, at that point, it locked in on him and turned to face its cameras in his direction.

The final version of the Lily Cam will be waterproof and even throw-proof; throw it into a lake and let it take off from the water, or hoist it into the air and let it stabilize itself. (That's the result of an array of sensors, including an accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer and camera that faces the ground.)

We tried to throw Lily Camera into the air, but it didn't quite fly. Taking off a cinch.

Yet when we tried to throw Lily Camera up in the air for a demo, the prototype turned sideway and crashed. Pieces popped off, but it wasn’t broken; later, it flew again.

Lily Camera will sell for $899 at retail, but the company is offering a steep discount for those who order early: $499.