Ask The Editors: What Is An Invisible Selfie Stick?
This can disappear.
We’ve seen footage like this too and you’re right, it seems like science fiction. The good news, though, is that it’s very real and can be had by anyone with about $300 – $500 to spend.
The technology goes by the label “invisible selfie stick” and the brand Insta360 is one of many who offer it.
We won’t bore you with all the science involved in accomplishing the illusion that it is truly floating next to the subject but in a nutshell it attaches to the rider or the machine by a very real stick. The camera itself contains two lenses, each taking a little over 180° field of vision. Why a little over? That overlap allows the software to stitch together the two images seamlessly so that the stick itself disappears from existence in the finished footage.
It’s one of those things that makes a lot of sense once you understand how it’s accomplished but seeing the footage in action really doesn’t seem possible.
There is another, less efficient way to accomplish this in the form of “follow” drone cams like the Snap Pixy that, as the name suggests, literally follow the keeper of the transponder, filming all the while in its direction. These are actually slightly more affordable than an invisible selfie stick rig but we have found they don’t work quite as well for the rigors of off-road as keeping up with a fast moving ATV is difficult for them, overhanging foliage can snag them and, in the case of track riding especially, someone else hitting the drone is a very real possibility.
