With the formidable quality of video that can be captured by smartphones, there’s got to be something special offered by a camcorder to arouse interest. GoPro figured out that small size, ruggedness, a wide angle. It’s attracted a number of competitors, including Contour, Drift Innovation, Sony, C&A Marketing (using the Polaroid Cube brand) and, more recently, TomTom (yes, the GPS company) with a 4K camera called the Bandit.
Graava enters this crowded field with a small, polished gemstone-like camcorder that affixed to a range of bikes and apparel with the right mounts. Lacking an LCD as many of these products do, it has a grid of LEDs on its side that indicate the product’s status, and has an enclosed HDMI connector and microSD slot for expansion It can also be charged wirelessly using the Qi standard. What sets Graava apart is that it has the ability to analyze the video it captures and pick out the most interesting parts depending on how long the resulting video is. And when it’s not capturing extreme surfing, it can be used to capture the gentle sounds of a napping infant as a baby monitor.