Satarii Star Accessory: a stand that lets your iPhone video camera follow your moves

The Satarii Star Accessory is a stand that swivels so that the iPhone’s video camera is always focused on you. “You” in this case means whoever carries a clip-on remote with them, so this has many applications. One example that comes to mind is capturing a video of someone who holds a presentation or lecture. It can be especially useful while practicing, because you get a good look at yourself without having to involve other people. The project is crowd-financed and currently still shy of its goal of $20,000. Check out their web site and introductory video. More details:

• Will be designed to fit the iPhone 4 and the latest video-enabled iPod Touch.
• They also are producing an accessory that slides into the holder to provide a standard tripod mount. That means you can use this with most available pocket cameras.
• Supports both portrait and landscape use of iPhone.
• Rotates 180°.
• Works whenever the base can sense the remote up to 8 meters indoors and outdoors.

Plans for the future (i.e., after and if the first version succeeds):

• Include a button on the remote that can be used for taking pictures.
• Tilt (vertically) in addition to swivel (horizontally).

A loosely related product is the photo-only Sony Party-shot, a camera dock which tilts and swivels and recognizes faces. I can imagine myself placing one of those at a party and checking out the results afterwards.

Update 2011-01-18: As a commenter pointed out, the Glif is loosely related. It is also an iPhone stand and crowd-financed. They easily reached their goal. John Gruber put in a good word on his blog, which must have helped.

[Source: Engadget]
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