Snapchat's Spectacles, sunglasses with a camera embedded in the frame so you can take videos, are all the rage at the moment. Available for $130, but only from vending machines that pop up at random (or for way, way too much money on eBay), the camera specs are already far trendier than Google's ill-fated Glass could ever hope to be. But what are they, exactly? It only takes one pair and a Dremel to find out for sure.
After getting their hands on a pair of the glasses, the folks over at What's Inside took to cutting a pair in half to figure out what's really going on in there, and the answer is actually quite simple. The specs have two yellow circles at the top, outside edge of each frame. One of these holds the camera, which shoots the video that plays back in a strange, circular aspect ratio. The other holds the lithium-ion battery (which obvious goes up in flames if you cut into it) and the Bluetooth guts that connect the frames to your phone. The two units are joined by a copper wire running through the frame, so make sure you don't snap them in half!
The coolest trick that the Spectacles can do isn't thanks to its (fairly simple) hardware, but rather software. Because the footage the camera actually captures is cropped into a circular type shape, Snapchat can pull of a very cool trick with the resulting video, letting it morph and change as you twist your phone while viewing it.
Various apps from YouTube to Instagram to Vine (RIP) have been slowly legitimizing the once horrible sin of taking vertical video, either by supporting a vertical aspect ratios better or opting for something more square-shaped. Snapchat's cool little rotation trick, however, is probably the coolest solution so far. Here's to hoping that it catches on, even/especially for videos that aren't taken by some goofy-looking camera glasses.
Source: What's Inside
