Snapchat Launches Sunglasses That Records Videos

By Sowmya Venkataramani - 27 Sep '16 01:02AM

Snapchat Inc. the messaging app firm now renamed as Snap Inc. is venturing into new areas of innovation with the launch of Spectacles, its first hardware product. The company's renaming itself indicates its ambition to go beyond its flagship messaging application.

Spectacles looks like normal sunglasses but actually has a camera embedded inside it. A tap of a button on its side, and it records upto 10 seconds of video while three taps records a maximum of 30 seconds. The video footage syncs to a smartphone wirelessly through Bluetooth or Wifi, and can then be uploaded to the Snapchat app.

Evan Spiegel the 26-year-old Snapchat CEO has called it a toy and has said that he sees it used during a barbecue or an outdoor concert, sharing the experience and reliving it. Priced at $130, the Spectacles will go on sale later this year and will be available with limited distributed.

"We're going to take a slow approach to rolling them out," said Spiegel. "It's about us figuring out if it fits into people's lives and seeing how they like it."

Spectacles captures footage with an 115-degree wide view lens using a circular format, similar to human vision, that can be watched in full-screen on a phone. Spiegel has said this design gives a fundamentally different viewing angle for the video versus the usual footage from a smartphone's camera.The camera-in-sunglasses also leaves the hands free to keep doing things and allows stretching out of arms instead of having the smartphone "like a wall in front of your face," as explained by Spiegel.

The batteries for the glasses are expected to last for a day and can receive four full charges via a portable charging device. The one-size-fits-all sunglasses are available in black, coral and teal.

Spiegel describes the experience of seeing the footage from a prototype test during a vacation in Californian state park Big Sur as "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," said Spiegel.