Snapchat just unveiled its very first piece of hardware – camera-equipped sunglasses.
The one-size-fits-all glasses, which Snapchat is calling Spectacles, comes fitted with a camera capable of recording up to 30 seconds of video at a time.
Spectacles can connect directly to Snapchat via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi and transfer user’s ‘Memories’ directly into the app in a new circular video format – circular video plays full screen, in any orientation, and captures the human perspective with a 115-degree field of view.
The company, which recently changed the name of its company to Snap Inc., said in an announcement:
“We’ve been working for the past few years to develop a totally new type of camera. We call it Spectacles!
Imagine one of your favorite memories. What if you could go back and see that memory the way you experienced it? That’s why we built Spectacles.
Spectacles are sunglasses with an integrated video camera that makes it easy to create Memories.
We’ve created one of the smallest wireless video cameras in the world, capable of taking a day’s worth of Snaps on a single charge, and we integrated it seamlessly into a fun pair of sunglasses – available in 3 different colors!”
The product will go on sale later this year priced at $130 (£100).
In a report by the Wall Street Journal, Snap’s 26-year-old founder Evan Spiegel, explained what made him want to create the product.
“It was our first vacation, and we went to [Californian state park] Big Sur for a day or two. We were walking through the woods, stepping over logs, looking up at the beautiful trees.
“And when I got the footage back and watched it, I could see my own memory, through my own eyes – it was unbelievable.
“It’s one thing to see images of an experience you had, but it’s another thing to have an experience of the experience. It was the closest I’d ever come to feeling like I was there again.”
