Bringing the Camera Back to Our Eyes

You see your baby's smiling face and reach out to hug her, you play, cuddle your dog, show a butterfly on your hand and... record it all. The new Spectacles by Snap Inc. allow you to actually "make memories" (as their slogan claims) while capturing them.

Snap Inc. is the new name of the company behind the app Snapchat. For those not familiar with it, let us present some numbers: more than 60% of the smartphone users between 13 and 34-year-old are now on the app publishing more than one billion "Snaps" a day and watching more than ten billion videos. Snapchat has more than 150 million daily users - nearly 15 million more than Twitter - and is luring more people every day. What made it so appealing? Simple rules: no ranking (you can't "like" anything) and no preserving (everything you publish is erased after 24 hours). It's aimed at living the moment or YOLO ('you only live once') as Snapchat users would probably put it.

With the introduction of Spectacles, the founder and CEO of Snapchat, Evan Spiegel, shows he has a bigger plan. Colorful glasses that might be a fun version of the Ray-Ban trendy eyewear look. Very different from high-tech design of Google glasses, Snap Inc. took a lesson from them: recording is signified by a light indicator on the front so that no one can film secretly. They are also cheaper - you can have them for around 130$. Looking fun and familiar, is there anything to be frightened about?

With wireless weadphones Apple entered a new chapter of personal devices: computers in our ears. With Spectacles we can speak about a computer attached to our eyes. The common image of people handing out their smartphones to capture a video may become history pretty soon. Spectacles allow to have 115 degrees round vision recording with free hands. You no longer need to become a spectator during the process of filming, you just dive into the moment while recording it, directly as you see it. You can forget about the device because it was meant to be forgotten.

Source: The Wall Street Journal. Imagine: Spectacles by Snap Inc.