Although Snapchat’s new and exciting video recording sunglasses have finally arrived in California, they are only available for purchase by means of a single vending kiosk at the moment, known as a Snapbot. The unit is placed in a different random location every 24 hours before disappearing. While Snapchat does plan on making more of the machines available, these too will only be at each location for 24 hours at a time before being relocated.

Video-Recording Glasses

The futuristic Spectacles are the Snap Company’s first venture into the consumer hardware market and they are glasses that have the ability to record 10 second video clips. However, there is one small catch to them in that they will only be effective at recording when they are used in conjunction with the Snapchat app.

The Snapbots will be making use of exactly the same technology that the app is using for its array of face-distorting lenses, and this will enable people to ‘try on’ the Spectacles in various colors before making their final purchase decision.

How they Work

Snapchat’s Spectacles work by recording a 10 second video clip with a 115 degree angle lens, which has been designed to mimic how human eyes see through a circular field of view. The CEO of Snapchat, Evan Spiegel, used a pair of the Spectacles on one of his recent hiking trips to test them out. “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,” he said.

A Long-Awaited Project

Battery life on the Spectacles is expected to last approximately 16 minutes of video and they are supplied with a charging case as well as a charging cable. It was revealed that Snapchat has been secretly working on their Spectacle project for quite a few years already, dating back to the company’s acquisition of a smaller startup enterprise in 2014 called Vergence Labs. Although this seems like somewhat of an unorthodox manner to introduce a product to the market, Snapchat has been known for doing things differently.

Limited Distribution

When it was announced that Snapchat would be releasing the Spectacles, the company noted that they would only be available with limited distribution. Sources that are familiar with the company have suggested that only a few thousand of the units will most likely be sold – but only time will tell how popular they become. The glasses will be sold in 3 different colors, including teal, black and coral.

While the company has said that they will only be announcing the new Snapbot locations a mere 24 hours before they appear, eager Spectacles purchasers will have the ability to check the Spectacles website so they can see exactly where and when a convenient location will be available for them. The glasses will be selling for $130.

Image Copyright : Aleksandrs Tihonovs