LOS ANGELES – Snapchat has announced its first gadget – Spectacles – the sunglasses with a built-in camera.
The smart glasses that shoot first-person video will arrive this fall, CEO Evan Spiegel told The Wall Street Journal.
The glasses can record up to 30 seconds of video from the wearer’s perspective using a 115-degree-angle lens that resembles the human eye’s natural field of view.
Each tap of a button mounted on the upper edge of the left lens records another clip.
The glasses will come in one size and be available on a limited basis in the fall. They will come in three colors — black, teal and coral — and will cost $129.99 (roughly £100, AU$170).
As part of the announcement, Snapchat is renaming itself to Snap, Inc. The renaming decision underlined the company’s apparent ambition to go beyond the ephemeral messaging app, a product which is highly popular with young people.
How Spectacles works?
On Saturday, Snap released some limited information about how the glasses will work, the BBC reported.
Footage will be recorded in a new, circular format which can be viewed in any orientation, the company said. The battery on the device will last around a day.
A light on the front of the device will indicate to people nearby when the glasses are recording.
