Would you wear a pair of sunglasses with a camera and a microphone? Snap Inc. (or Snapchat, as many know it) thinks that many of you will. This version 2.0 of their Spectacles product, first introduced in 2016, improves many of the shortcomings of the original.
To be clear, this product is not high-fashion James Bond-ian; nor is it hi-tech Google Glass. It has a very simple purpose: to make it easier for you to share pieces of your life — as your own eyes see them — without leaving the moment. They want you to, “press the button to take a photo or video — and get back to your life.”
The most obvious reason for Snap Inc. to do this is to make it easier for their users to create content to share over the Snapchat network. (Similar, in fact, to GoPro’s recent announcement of better integration between their cameras and Instagram Stories.)
There’s another reason though — Snap Inc. doesn’t see itself as a social media company — it’s building itself as a camera company.
“Snap Inc. is a camera company,” the company writes on its homepage. “We believe that reinventing the camera represents our greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate.”
And, boy, is this camera reinvented. Here’s a rundown of the core features of Spectacles, highlighting the improvements over the original version:
- It’s a pair of sunglasses! (UVA and UVB protection, but not polarized.)
- They come in three frame colors: Onyx, Ruby, and Sapphire. Each color has two shades of lenses you can order to match that frame.
- Can take photos (new!) and either 10-second or 30-second (new!) video
- Sync to your phone via Bluetooth and HD photo and video transfer via WiFi (first version had limits on HD transfer)
- Water resistant in shallow waters (this is new — and oh, so important)
- Snap rates these cameras at 70 videos per charge, and you can recharge on-the-go four times using a the enclosed carrying case. The carrying case holds four spectacles charges at a time, and takes about about 90 minutes to fully charge.
- Content syncs to your Snapchat app, after which you can choose if/what to share
- Between syncs, Spectacles’ in-camera memory holds 150 videos or 3,000 photos
- You can get these with prescription lenses
Interestingly, in what would seem to be mimicry of the human eye, the photos and videos captured by Spectacles are circular. Snap’s actual reason for this is to allow you to crop photos and videos in any orientation, clipping off the edges of the circle, and still having a full-screen rectangle to share on your phone. (This is not actually totally original, at least as far as photos are concerned. Photography history buffs might remember the Kodak 1; introduced in 1888, it produced round negatives.)
Only available from the Spectacles website, these sunglasses retail for $149.99. Will they take off? Time will tell, but as the summer heats up, now’s the best time to pick up a pair and head out to try them!
Featured image from Spectacles/YouTube
