[TechWeb Report] On April 26, 2017, Beijing time, following events in Munich, Germany, and San Francisco, USA, PowerVision held the Beijing launch event for the PowerRay Little Ray at the Beijing Oceanarium. The company officially announced the domestic pricing for the three versions of the underwater robot: the Explorer Edition at 9,988 yuan, the FishFinder Edition at 13,999 yuan, and the Master Edition at 14,988 yuan. Starting today, Chinese consumers can purchase the product on PowerVision’s official website.
Since its international release, the PowerRay Little Ray has received widespread acclaim from overseas media and consumers thanks to its advanced product concept and powerful features. It has even been hailed by foreign media as “the ultimate robot for consumers who want to explore the underwater world.” So, as PowerVision’s first consumer-grade underwater robot, what cutting-edge technologies does the PowerRay Little Ray offer?
The product is divided into three editions—Explorer, FishFinder, and Master—to meet the needs of different users.
The PowerRay comes in three versions: Explorer, FishFinder, and Master. If you're a fan of underwater photography, you can opt for the PowerRay Explorer Edition, which comes with a 4K ultra-high-definition wide-angle underwater camera. If you're into sea fishing or yachting, the PowerRay FishFinder Edition, which includes the PowerSeeker fish finder and fishing kit, is more suitable for you. And if you’re passionate about the underwater world and want to explore it up close, the PowerRay Master Edition, equipped with a custom Zeiss VR headset from PowerVision, will be your best companion. Its hyper-realistic “immersion” allows you to experience the charm of the underwater world from a first-person perspective.
In short, users with different needs can choose the version that best suits their configuration. Whether it’s underwater photography, visual fishing, or exploring the underwater world through a VR headset in first-person view, all the features of an underwater robot are well realized in the PowerRay.
4K underwater photography + 4-hour ultra-long battery life, outstanding specs and satisfying performance
The PowerRay Little Ray focuses on underwater photography and is equipped with an ultra-high-definition wide-angle camera. It can transmit real-time 1080P previews of underwater images and videos, and supports 4K 30fps video recording and 12-megapixel 5-image burst shooting. It can be controlled via four modes: remote control, mobile app, mobile motion sensing, or VR motion sensing, meeting the diverse needs of users in different scenarios.
In addition, the PowerRay features a military-grade sealed design, capable of operating at depths of up to 30 meters, whether in freshwater or seawater, with a maximum battery life of up to 4 hours. Moreover, the PowerRay Little Ray is equipped with an intelligent fish finder (which can also be detached and used alone). Using sonar, it can accurately detect fish distribution, size, depth, and other fish conditions within a depth range of 40 meters, as well as water temperature, depth, and underwater terrain information, helping users achieve visual fishing and adding more usage scenarios and fun to the product.
More specifications:
First-person view + VR motion control—the highlight co-created by PowerVision and Zeiss
The PowerRay Master Edition is also equipped with a custom Zeiss VR headset from PowerVision, offering users an immersive first-person experience. It allows users to feel as if they are navigating underwater in person, and supports both controller mode and observer mode, enabling multiple VR headsets to share a zero-distance perspective.
Additionally, as demonstrated at the launch event, users can control the PowerRay’s underwater movements via the gravity sensors of the VR headset—by simply changing their head position, they can steer the PowerRay to turn left, turn right, ascend, or dive. The interactive experience is highly engaging, almost like being in a virtual gaming world.
In recent years, as the aerial drone market has shifted from a blue ocean to a red ocean, the underwater robotics field—with its potential market size of tens of billions of dollars—has gradually “surfaced.” The launch of the PowerRay Little Ray not only marks PowerVision’s leap from aerial robots to underwater robots but also represents a breakthrough and experiment for the entire robotics industry. Interested users can visit the official PowerVision website starting today to begin their underwater exploration journey.