This year, we heard a lot about video-capable and augmented reality glasses, especially those being made by Google and Oakley. ZionEyez and Pivothead are two companies that already offer sunglasses with built-in video cameras. Now we learn that Vergence Labs is also working on something similar, which they call Social Video Electric Eyewear, and the company is looking to raise US $50,000 for the project via the funding site, Kickstarter.
Although Google and Oakley are planning to make glasses that can perform smartphone-like tasks, Vergence Labs is content with just two key innovations built in. Firstly, they’re a pair of electric-powered sunglasses that use chromatic shifting conductive glass to enable the lenses to be lightened or darkened by pressing a button. Secondly, they contain a small camera in a pinhole set between the two lenses that can record video at 720p, allowing users to capture video from a first-person perspective. The video is then saved to a microSD card. Supposedly, battery life is only two hours, though.
The company also plans to add Wi-Fi capability to the glasses to allow live streaming to a phone or tablet. A so-called “reality visor” is also in the works, which allows users to be fully immersed in a 3D environment when watching a video recorded on the first-person camera.