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Ghost Drone: Aerial filming has never been easier!

Ghost turns the average person into a filmmaker. Capture your adventures with amazing aerial shots!

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Ghost Drone: Aerial filming has never been easier!

Ghost Drone: Aerial filming has never been easier!

Ghost Drone: Aerial filming has never been easier!

Ghost Drone: Aerial filming has never been easier!

Ghost Drone: Aerial filming has never been easier!

Ghost turns the average person into a filmmaker. Capture your adventures with amazing aerial shots!

Ghost turns the average person into a filmmaker. Capture your adventures with amazing aerial shots!

Ghost turns the average person into a filmmaker. Capture your adventures with amazing aerial shots!

Ghost turns the average person into a filmmaker. Capture your adventures with amazing aerial shots!

Ehang USA
Ehang USA
Ehang USA
Ehang USA
1 Campaign |
San Francisco, United States
$850,680 USD by 1,984 backers
$784,321 USD by 1,671 backers on Jan 10, 2015
Choose your Perk

I FORGOT SHIPPING $25

$25 USD
24 claimed

I FORGOT SHIPPING $50

$50 USD
79 claimed


Ghost is the world's easiest drone to fly. It is perfect for first-timers and experienced pilots alike.  Help us make drones more accessible to everyone!


With our smartphone app and a GoPro, you can become an aerial filmmaker. Be the star of your adventures!


There is no bulky RC controller to carry around. You also don't need a co-pilot, since control is through one-click commands on your phone. Auto-follow mode keeps the camera on you.


Ghost arrives ready to use and fully assembled.  A small G-Box communicates between the smartphone and the drone. The 2D gimbal fits a GoPro and keeps your shot stable. No need for a buddy or expensive helicopter. You can record all of your adventures easily and share them with your friends. 


We wanted to improve on the auto-follow that exists now. We have made our auto-follow feature work to let you film yourself. This is super fun, as you can use it for action sports, from trail running and biking, to surfing and snow sports. Our auto-follow will continue to film you as you make turns and change direction, always keeping the camera on you. 

Here is a clip of an actual auto follow trial we did at Stanford. Our runner is holding the phone and small G-Box (about the size of the phone), and the Ghost is filming her with a GoPro3+ Black Edition.

In less than one day after I got the SDK with my Ghost, I was able to implement a simple app that can do speech control for my Ghost. I wish I could tell you how cool it is just as easily as I tell my Ghost to 'Take off!' - Felix W., Developer + Fan

In case you want to define your own way of flying your Ghost, every shipment comes with an extremely easy-to-use yet powerful and versatile software development kit (Ghost SDK). The Ghost SDK allows you to control your Ghost with commands as high level as "take off," "fly to xyz," "loiter" and "land" (and lets Ghost figure out how), or with as low level as setting the spinning speed of the propellers, the inclination of the drone body, or the orientation of the GoPro camera. With the Ghost SDK, you get full control and potential of your Ghost, and even the sky's NOT the limit any more.

Additional funding will let us give you even more great features for your drone. We have already started development, and want you to tell us which ones you want and help us deliver them to you!

Help us offer you more colors. If we reach $150K in funding, we will give our supporters on Indiegogo the chance to vote for their top 5 favorite new colors* to add to our offering. If you want a new color, you will receive it starting Feb 2015. Otherwise, choose black or white for a ship date of Dec 2014-Jan 2015.

*Please note: Colors pictured are just placeholders. We will offer a large selection of colors from which our voters can choose, and narrow it down to the top 5. We will also allow for personal submissions. We want you to choose!

Integrate with waterproof smartwatch to make it hands-free and take it on your adventures.

We have updated our $500K stretch goal to the new TILT MODE. Like nothing you have ever seen, it revolutionizes the way you control the drone by simply tilting your phone! You can use this feature both outdoors and indoors. 

Help us put it in every Ghost, and make it work with iOS (currently works with Android).

"[Co-founder] Xiong highlighted two "breakthrough" features on the Ghost: smartphone-tilt control and an auto-follow mode that's starting to become the norm. The former is very much what it says on the tin: Once the Ghost is in the air, you can rotate and tilt your phone as if you're doing the same to the drone." - Engadget 

Here is a video of our team using the new TILT mode. You asked for more Ghost footage, so here it is. All aerials in this video were shot with Ghost.


This time, you decide!

We've made over $500K in just 3 weeks. Now, help us determine our next stretch goal! Where do you want Ghost to go? What do you want it to do? Vote now and tell us what you want next! https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FR992S3

 


Travel light with just your phone, and let Auto Mode do the flying, so you can focus on generating the perfect shot. Point your finger on the map, and the drone flies to that spot. No bulky RC controller to carry around. Just your phone and a small G-Box.


Take off, hover, return and land are all pre-programmed for you. The app will alert you when the battery is low. This makes flying easy, so you can focus on getting amazing pictures.


Control the height and orientation of your drone by sliding the bars. Vertical bar controls the altitude. Horizontal bar rotates the drone to swivel the camera around to capture the perfect angle. 


Control the angle of your GoPro to shoot versatile videos. Vertical bar allows you to tilt the camera up toward the sky and down toward the ground. Horizontal bar allows tilting right and left.

For advanced control, use the micro control feature to make more precise adjustments to the drone in any direction. The smart phone screen is great for flying longer distances, but too small for pinpointing exact locations. Use micro control mode to adjust the drone's position in any direction over shorter distances. Slide in the direction you want the drone to move and watch Ghost go. Moving up will make the head of the ghost fly forward (red lights). Moving down will make it fly tail first (blue lights). (In Auto Mode, Ghost flies head first only).


Ghost is compatible with GoPro, including Hero4. A smartphone-app controlled 2D gimbal stabilizes your shot. Ghost is also wind resistant, water-proof, with automatic return if the connection is lost. Night mode has LED lights to track drone in the sky. This makes capturing images in these conditions possible.


You can integrate with a third-party recording monitor to preview your photos and videos as the drone is flying.

We know delays have been a challenge in crowd funding campaigns, and have chosen to launch when we could deliver the product to you. Our manufacturers have been great partners. They have helped us shorten production lead-times for parts, so that we can quickly assemble Ghost once orders are placed. We own our own assembly factories, which helps us execute quickly.

This also allows Ehang to deliver Ghost to you at an amazing price. While it's fun to play with, Ghost is meant for high performance seekers looking for amazing aerial shots. We have worked hard to deliver high quality hardware components and develop user-friendly software technology. 





"We are talking about a geek’s dream come true with a Smartphone operated, quad propeller drone that can be programmed to independently fly from point to point. Eat your heart out NASA!" - Mobile Geeks

"[Co-founder] Xiong highlighted two "breakthrough" features on the Ghost: smartphone-tilt control and an auto-follow mode that's starting to become the norm. The former is very much what it says on the tin: Once the Ghost is in the air, you can rotate and tilt your phone as if you're doing the same to the drone." - Engadget 

"[Ghost] drones makes controlling it as straight-forward and simple as possible through its mobile app." - Slash Gear





We are an international team of flight enthusiasts and adventurers, and founded Ehang to remove the barriers to drone use so everyone could enjoy aerial filming. Drones are traditionally hard to pilot, easy to crash, and expensive. We developed our first product, the Ghost Drone, to address these challenges so you can discover a new way to capture magic around the earth. 

Pre-order your drone to help us generate the volume we need to lower the cost for you and bring you additional features. Vote with your dollars and tell us which features you want us to develop.

Unlike many other drones being advertised, the Ghost Drone will be ready to ship between mid-December and end of January at the latest. With its lower price point and easy-to-use smartphone app, the Ghost Drone will make the perfect gift for first-time users and drone lovers alike.


  • Filmmakers & Photographers
  • Sports Enthusiasts
  • Travelers & Adventurers
  • GoPro owners
  • First time & experienced drone users alike
Here is a photo from our friends at Drone Promotions, who took this amazing aerial of Lake Tahoe before the snowfall. 


Take Ghost anywhere you take your GoPro. Whether it's going on a hike in the mountains, a music festival with friends, a visit to wine country, a pre-work surf, or snowboarding session, Ghost can come with you to record the moment from an incredible perspective. 


Here is a video we shot with Ghost at the Modern Sky Music Festival this year.

Song credit: Lindsey Stirling-Transcendence

Ghost can also film your favorite tourist attraction:


Instructions on how to build your own GHOST:


Note: The latest G-Box does not have an antenna.


We have already successfully developed key features like smartphone control and advanced auto-follow that actually work. Now we want you to help us launch Ghost into the U.S. market and take it to mass production through pre-orders and become an early adopter. There is no need to wait for months, as Ghost will be ready to ship as early as mid-December, just in time for the holidays, but no later than end of January (for black and white colors). The more demand we have, the more we can pass those savings to consumers through special deals, additional accessories and features. Take a look at our stretch goals below.  Help us develop Ghost and give us feedback to make it even better.

PRESS/PARTNERSHIPS: partnerships@ehfly.com

SALES/DISTRIBUTION + MANUFACTURING INQUIRIES: sales@ehfly.com

GENERAL INQUIRIES/CUSTOMERS: support@ehfly.com

TO JOIN BETA TESTER GROUP: beta@ehfly.com

CAREERS: careers@ehfly.com

INVESTING: investors@ehfly.com

While we are relatively new, our engineers have extensive experience in hardware and software, and have been developing Ghost for over a year. Throughout the course of R&D, we have created several generations of Ghost prototypes and have continuously improved functionality based on repeated testing. We are now fine tuning our design for mass production.

We have seen with crowd funding campaigns before us that hiccups might happen, especially in the manufacturing process. To minimize this risk, we have established strong relationships with parts manufacturers. We also own our own factories that are responsible for final assembly and shipping, making this a very smooth, reliable process. We understand that Indiegogo backers want their Ghost drones as soon as possible, but quality control is at the top of the list. Even though we are confident we can deliver before the holidays, there are always unforeseen challenges, or small changes that could cause delays. We have tried to account for these by opening our shipping window through end Jan.

Ghost drone has been repeatedly tested in lab and in real life, but we still expect issues to come up when put into unexpected circumstances and uses, as we push its performance. We will continue to put Ghost drones into the hands of developers, photographers, filmmakers, sports enthusiasts and travelers for real-life testing to make sure we deliver the best version.

With that said, the Ghost team thanks you for your support. We are dedicated to our timeline and will keep you informed on the status of our progress on the first of each month at a minimum, and will send further updates as we have them. We are committed to being transparent and keeping Ghost fans and Indiegogo backers informed. Our major milestones will be ship date, development of iOS, and our stretch goals as stated above.


We want you to share Ghost with your friends, and reward you for spreading the word. We just launched our referral program this week, so let your friends know. Here is what you get:


Instructions

See an easy visual guide here: HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN THE REFERRAL PROGRAM

  1. Log into your Indiegogo account.
  2. Click on the referral link under the Ghost video and share with your friends and/or share via the social buttons under the video.
  3. Make sure your friends use your unique referral link when they buy, so you get credit.
  4. You can check your account and see how many referral dollars  you have driven.

Details:

  • If your friends spend a combined total of $500+, you get a free battery.
  • If your friends spend a combined total of $1,000+, you get a free 2D gimbal.
  • If your friends spend a combined total of $2,000+, you get a free drone (without gimbal) in black or white.
  • If your friends spend a combined total of $3,000+, you get a free GoPro Hero4 Silver. 

Rules:

  1. You must be a contributor to the campaign.
  2. You will only get referral credit if you are logged in to Indiegogo, and share your personal referral link. Your friends must use this link to purchase their perk.
  3. You cannot receive more than one prize. Your final prize will be determined by the prize that is closest to your total referral contribution dollars.
  4. You will be able to choose from black or white drones for your free drone.
  5. Your extra battery will ship March 2015.
Extras:
We will announce who is in the lead, as special prizes will be announced to those amazing social butterflies who are the top referrers. Stay tuned!

Company

1.  Where are you located? Do I have to contact China if I have any issues?

We have an office in San Carlos, California, a short drive from Palo Alto and San Francisco. We have a team there that will be able to answer questions and help you if any issues arise. They are native English speakers, so there should be no language barrier.

2.  How long have you been around?

Our team in China has been working on the technology for 2 years, but just released a small Alpha test of Ghost in China this April. This is our first launch and our first introduction to the U.S. We hope you love Ghost!

3.  What are your future plans?

We are super passionate about the way people move around the world, and about flying, so we will continue to push technology in those areas.

4.  Why are you crowd funding?

We are still a small company that used a crowd funding site to do a small beta test an earlier version of Ghost in China. Now, we are doing the same in the U.S. We are hosting this pre-order campaign to test our concept out with the Indiegogo community and reach some early adopters who can be our partners, giving us feedback to make things better and evolve the product with us.

5.  How different are you than other drone companies?

First, we used videos of the Ghost actually flying. It was not shot with other drones or cameras. We actually used our auto-follow mode to film our runner at Stanford. We are ready to ship mid Dec-end Jan.

While we are working out certain features such as finalizing the iPhone app (the hardware part), adding in the secret feature (we are almost done and have already tested it), or adding in social features and integrating wearables (also already underway), we are almost done with the technology.

Second,  while we share the same passion as many of the other companies listed, and are personal friends with a few of them, we are quite different. Since our origins are in flight and model planes and adventure, we take a very technical and personal approach to product development. We want to make superior technical products very easy for the average consumer to use. We will always push the technical side, while keeping the consumer experience in mind. That’s why we were able to get auto-follow to work as the most sophisticated version out there. That is also why we are going to bring you the surprise development we stated in our $700K stretch goal. We wish we could share, and are super excited, but need to make sure we nail down the patent. And that is why we chose to pilot the drone with a smart phone.

Product (General)

1.  How does the technology actually work?

A small G-Box communicates with the phone through Bluetooth, and the G-Box communicates with the Ghost drone through wireless radio. It is all electrical and works with a battery.

2. Auto follow sounds COOL! How does it work?

Ghost captures the GPS enabled on a smartphone/smart watch. Simply press the Auto follow button, and our system does the rest. Currently, follow behind is the default. However, other follow modes are under development. Keep an eye out!

3.  Does Ghost support night filming?

Ghost is visible in the dark, as it is equipped with night mode flashing lights. Red indicates the head and blue the tail, so you always know where Ghost is in the air and how it is oriented. The definition of night shots depends on GoPro definition and ground luminosity.

4.  How does Ghost behave in wind or rain?

Ghost is wind and water resistant. Tests have shown that Ghost is able to fly in winds of up to 21 knot without significant impact on video quality. Ghost is water resistant with fully enclosed electronics. It works fine in light rain, but flying Ghost in heavy rain is going to be a challenge.

5.  How does Ghost handle obstacle avoidance?

The current system requires that you fly Ghost in open areas. The reason is that the avoidance system is not currently in place for the first version. We are working on incorporating the obstacle avoidance function; a system update will be available and rolled out.

Software

1.  What if I don’t have an android?

While we are ready to ship out the Android G-Box, we are still working on the iOS G-Box, which will be shipped in April. If you decide to purchase Ghost now with an Android G-Box, we are happy to ship you the iOS G-Box for an additional $50 (shipping included), which is way below market price.

2.  When is iPhone going to be ready?

The software already works. We are just working on the connection with the G-Box. It should be ready by March 2015.

3. What happens if the phone rings/ Ghost exceeds control range/ the battery runs out/ the GPS connection is lost

If you get a phone call while piloting Ghost, it will keep executing your instructions uninterrupted. Safety features are incorporated when facing failure scenarios. In case Ghost exceeds the control range (0.6 mile) or Radio Frequency connection is lost or broken, Ghost will kick into return mode. It will automatically return to the place of origin and hover at 10 meters waiting for further instruction (landing). If the battery drops to below 10%, you will get a voice alert.

4. What if I don't have cell service? Can I still fly Ghost?

You will need data to download the map of your flying area. For places without cell service, you can always download your map in advance

Hardware

1.  What if I want a color other than black or white?

If we reach our stretch goal of $150K, we will be offering 5 new colors that start being shipped in Feb 2015. If you want one of those, you can elect to have us ship you your done after January. Otherwise, you can receive a black or white one by mid-Dec/end Jan.

2.  What's special about your 2D gimbal? What if I prefer using my own gimbal?

Ghost's 2D gimbal excels at its stability, whether it has camera on or flies no-load.  The 2D gimbal keeps shots extremely steady and the camera pointed the same direction as Ghost banks and turns. It is compatible with all versions of GoPro or camera with similar size, and can also work independently with power supply. There is no need to set up and adjust the parameter. 

You can definitely mount your own gimbal on Ghost out of box. Any type of GoPro-compatible 2D or 3D gimbal would work. No extra software or hardware update needed. We will also be offering different gimbals (including 3D) in the future. 

3. Is it possible to fly Ghost manually using RC controller?

The answer is Yes! Switching from autonomous to manual control is possible. We are developing Ghost customized 8 channel receiver. That being said, Ghost is not compatible with existing RC controllers. The reason for this is that drones are prone to crashes when steered by RC controllers. To enhance steering safety and smooth manual control, we decided to develop proprietary RC controllers.

Customer Service + SHIPPING

1.  What is your return policy/warranty?

We are here to support you as you start flying Ghost. Firstly, we will be launching a how-to video and include a super simple visual manual for you, so that you know what you are doing, and avoid common mistakes.

If you encounter any serious problems or defects, you may contact us in the U.S., and we can assist you. We definitely stand behind our products and want to make sure you have the best experience.

That said, we cannot replace every Ghost that has simply been crashed due to user error, but are here to make sure you avoid that. If you keep it in auto mode and fly in areas high enough to avoid obstacles, you should be all set.

Also, we are always here to listen to your feedback. Call or email us!

2.  Do you ship international?

Yes. We charge $25 for Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. $50 everywhere else. Distributor orders will be coordinated and priced out separately.

3.  What do you charge for shipping?

We charge $25 for shipping in the United States, including Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, Canada and Mexico.  $50 everywhere else. Distributor orders will be coordinated and priced out separately.

4.  Why is the shipping window mid-Dec to end of Jan?

We wanted to be incredibly careful to not over-promise and disappoint. While we are confident in mid-December, we wanted to set expectations that delays could happen around the holidays and betting on end Jan would be better. If we do better than that, we look forward to surprising you with a holiday treat from Ghost. This is also why we offer gift cards for your loved ones. In case the physical product does not reach them in time, you can take a gift card to them.

5. Am I supposed to manually add shipping?

Yes, you have to add shipping on top of your selected perk before checkout!. Add $25 for shipping within United States, Canada, Mexico or Puerto Rico; or $50 for shipping elsewhere. Instructions are also clarified in Perks.
6. What if I already contributed and forgot to add shipping?

For shipping within United States, Canada, Mexico or Puerto Rico, use the same email address as your other contributions and select perk "I FORGOT SHIPPING $25" using  . For shipping elsewhere, select perk "I FORGOT SHIPPING $50".




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