Shooting live video from your own point of view hands-free could soon be the work of a pair of $100 sunglasses made from a company primarily known for electric skateboards. Ace Eyewear from Acton is the latest pair of camera-clad glasses ready to jump into the market, only this pair can live-stream on your pick of three social networks.
Equipped with an eight-megapixel camera with a 120-degree wide-angle lens, Ace Eyewear can capture both stills and video for sharing. When connected through a smartphone’s hot spot, the glasses can even live-stream that content to Facebook, Instagram or YouTube. Video is only HD, however, and not even UHD, though a built-in mic allows for sound capture. A button at the top of the glasses starts the capture.
Acton says a Dual Core MIPS 1.2GHz processor allows the glasses to shoot with low power, which means up to up to 90 minutes of HD video or 40 minutes of live-streaming and an impressive 80-hour standby battery life, all inside a pair of glasses that weighs less than two ounces. The glasses can store 4GB worth of photos and video while the accompanying app can manage and share those files. The glasses are also dust- and splash-resistant with an IP65 rating.
Acton largely develops electric skateboards and rocketskates, and Ace Eyewear appears to be their first attempt at a camera. Unlike Spectacles, the glasses from Snapchat’s parent company Snap Inc., Ace Eyewear works on three different networks.
While a number of companies have launched camera glasses, from small startups to Snap Inc., the wearable cameras haven’t yet found a large footing. Snap Spectacles appeared to be selling well initially with long lines at bright-yellow vending machines back when the glasses were hard to find, but the company was reportedly left with a large number of unsold glasses to the tune of $40 million dollars. Spectacles are also designed for recording Stories, with clips limited to 30 seconds.
Will multinetwork, live-streaming give camera glasses a chance? Acton is certainly going to try. The glasses are expected to retail for $199, but consumers willing to sign a pre-order reservation agreement could pick the shades up for $99, with an expected delivery by summer 2018.
