Polaroid GL20 video sunglasses use a concealed 5-megapixel camera to capture still images at 10 or 60 second intervals, or manually using a button on one arm of the glasses. The camera can also be used to capture video.
Pop diva Lady Gaga is shown in the video below introducing the GL20 sunglasses at CES 2011; she worked with Polaroid in designing the device.
(Lady Gaga shows Polaroid GL20 Video Sunglasses)
The images can be saved to an SD card and then transferred to a computer or cell phone via Bluetooth (or using a USB port in the arm of the sunglasses), where these pictures can be uploaded to the Internet.
Perhaps the most striking part of the GL20 sunglasses is that the lenses of the sunglasses each contain a 1.5 inch LCD display upon which the images can be shown. As far as I can tell, the images are intended to be seen by the people around the user; it is not clear from the various descriptions of this device whether or not the user can see them clearly.
(Polaroid GL20 video sunglasses)
SF readers may recall the True-Vu Lenses in his 1990 novel Earth. In the time of the story, street crime was virtually wiped out by the simple expedient of making cheap surveillance available to everyone.
"Watching, all the time watching... goggle-eye geeks...
What brought on Crat's sudden outburst was the sight of yet another babushka, glaring at them from a bench under one of the force-grown shade trees... The very moment they came into view, the old woman laid here wire-knitting aside and fixed them with the bug-eyed, opaque gape of her True-Vu lenses...
The stare got worse as they approached. Remi couldn't see the babushka's eyes, of course. Her True-Vu's burnished lenses didn't really have to be aimed directly at them to get a good record.
Via USA Today; thanks to Pete Nofel for the tip and reference on this story.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 1/9/2011)
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