Spectacles are smartglasses dedicated to recording video for the Snapchat service. This term is often used to address sunglasses and eyeglasses. They feature a camera lens and are capable of recording short video segments and syncing with a smartphone to upload to the user's online account. They were developed and manufactured by Snap Inc., and announced on September 23, 2016. The smartglasses were released on November 10, 2016. They are made for Snap's image messaging and multimedia platform, Snapchat, and were initially distributed exclusively through Snap's pop-upvending machine, Snapbot. On February 20, 2017, Snap Spectacles became available for purchase online.[2]
On April 26, 2018, a second-generation of the Spectacles launched in 17 countries. This version included both software and hardware updates including water resistance functionality and increased storage.[3][4]
On September 5, 2018, two improved second-generation Spectacles were released. The two new versions, dubbed Nico and Veronica, included major design changes that reflect more typical sunglasses styles.[5]
On August 13, 2019, Snap announced its Spectacles 3, which featured a new minimalistic frame and two cameras to replicate stereoscopic vision. The Spectacles shipped in November 2019 for $380.[6][7]
On 17 September 2024, the company unveiled the company's new premium Augmented Reality smart glasses Snapchat Spectacles (5th gen).[8]
Spectacles 4 announced in 2021
History
In December 2014 Snap Inc., then Snapchat Inc., acquired Vergence Labs [9] the developers of the Epiphany Eyewearsmartglasses.[10] Vergence Labs was founded by entrepreneur Erick Miller in 2011 before Google Glass was announced. Miller worked on the idea as a graduate student at UCLA and poured his life savings into building the product.[11] Snapchat was impressed with the Epiphany Eyewear product and the great team assembled by Miller, and acquired Vergence to develop a similar eyewear product.[12][9]
Epiphany Eyewear which recorded wide-angle point-of-view videos, had been positioned as Vergence's first step toward eventually building full featured augmented reality glasses which, according to Miller, would someday "give people what would previously be called superpowers".[12] However, due to Vergence's small engineering team (consisting of founder ceo Erick Miller, co-founder Jon Rodriguez, software engineer Peter Brook, and designer / mechanical engineer David Meisenholder), the company had to scale back its ambitions in order to ship its simpler first product, Epiphany Eyewear, which the team was able to successfully ship despite their extremely limited funding and team size.[9] The successful development and launch of their product led to the company being noticed by Snapchat, which quietly acquired them, bringing them in-house to develop a similar but much more refined eyewear product for Snapchat.
In October 2015, a leaked online video showed an early version of the new glasses, dubbed "Spectacles."[13] on mid 2016, news outlets reported that Snapchat was hiring engineers from Microsoft, Nokia and Qualcomm. Reporters speculated that the hires were to build the new glasses.[14][15][16]
The new product was unveiled on September 24, 2016, and[17] released on November 10, 2016.[18] The glasses were sold through Snapbot, a proprietary vending machine for the smartglasses, which was located near Snap's headquarters in Venice, Los Angeles.[18]
In May 2017, a Snapchat patent became public which included an illustration of a hypothetical future version of Spectacles with augmented reality capabilities.[19]
In late 2017, Snapchat wrote off $40m worth of unsold Spectacles inventory and unused parts. As of May 2018, the company sold 220,000 pairs, which was less than initially expected.[20] In April 2018, the company launched Spectacles 2.0, which included additional colors, lighter frames, the option of mirrored lenses, and the removal of the bright yellow ring around the camera window.[20]
In June 2018, Snap released an update for Spectacles allowing users to export videos from the glasses in square or widescreen format.[21]
In November 2018, it was reported that the company would release a new version of Spectacles by year end 2018 that included two cameras.[22] The Snap Spectacles 3, which did feature two HD cameras on-device, were ultimately announced in August 2019.[7]
In May 2021, Snap announced its first AR-based product called Spectacles 4.[23] The AR effects are officially referred to as Lenses and feature dual 3D waveguide display with a 26.3-degree diagonal field of view.[24][25] It runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR1 chip and has 2 RGB cameras, 4 microphones, and 2 stereo speakers.[26] Snap claimed to have more than 250,000 Lens creators who created 2.5 million Lenses altogether.[27] AR experiences available on the glasses as of December 2021 included "a zombie chase, a pong game, Solar System projection, and an interactive art piece." Additionally, according to The Verge, "Another new software update brings Connected Lenses to Spectacles, letting multiple pairs interact with the same Lens when sharing a Wi-Fi network."[27][28]
Design
Hardware
The original version of the glasses included a camera lens with a 115° field of view (110° on V2)[citation needed] and records in a circular format that adapts to a smartphone's screen size and orientation.[29] The smartglasses record when the user presses a button on the top left of its frame, for a maximum of 30 seconds (in 10 second intervals).[29] They sync with its designated smartphone via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.[30] The camera also houses a ring of LED lights that indicates battery level and when they are recording. The pair of glasses charge in a yellow case that has a built-in battery and connects to its proprietary cable.[31] The cable can be attached either to the case or directly to the glasses. According to the manufacturer, the fully charged case will hold enough power to recharge the glasses four times.[32] The lithium-ion batteries in both the case and the glasses draw power from a standard 5 volt USB power supply, and connect via a USB cable which is held in place by small magnets.[33]
Software
The Spectacles circular video format
Spectacles glasses capture video in a circular format, as shown in the thumbnail to the right. Snap Inc claims this is to more closely approximate the field of view of the human eye.[dubious–discuss]
The glasses are exclusive to Snap Inc's service, Snapchat. They are paired by looking at the user's account Snapcode and pressing the button on the glasses frame, as well as connecting to them via Bluetooth (for iOS devices). The videos taken on the glasses are stored internally within the camera and can be viewed and individually uploaded in the "Memories" section of Snapchat.
Snapbot
A Snapbot vending machine in Berlin
A Snapbot is a pop-upvending machine developed and manufactured by Snap Inc.[34] It was designed for the distribution of Spectacles. Snapbot first appeared on November 10, 2016, in Venice, Los Angeles, and was then located in Big Sur, California. Snapbot was relocated to different locations in the U.S. for several months after the release of Spectacles.[35][36] In February 2017, Snapchat began selling Spectacles online.[35]
Augmented reality (AR) is an interactive experience that combines the real world and computer-generated 3D content. The content can span multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory and olfactory. AR can be defined as a system that incorporates three basic features: a combination of real and virtual worlds, real-time interaction, and accurate 3D registration of virtual and real objects. The overlaid sensory information can be constructive, or destructive. As such, it is one of the key technologies in the reality-virtuality continuum.
Ray-Ban is a brand of luxury sunglasses and eyeglasses created in 1936 by Bausch & Lomb. The brand is best known for its Wayfarer and Aviator lines of sunglasses. In 1999, Bausch & Lomb sold the brand to Italian eyewear conglomerate Luxottica Group for a reported $640 million.
A virtual retinal display (VRD), also known as a retinal scan display (RSD) or retinal projector (RP), is a display technology that draws a raster display directly onto the retina of the eye.
Recon Instruments was a Canadian technology company that produced smartglasses and wearable displays marketed by the company as "heads-up displays" for sports. Recon's products delivered live activity metrics, GPS maps, and notifications directly to the user's eye. Recon's first heads-up display offering was released commercially in October 2010, roughly a year and a half before Google introduced Google Glass.
Snapchat is an American multimedia instant messaging app and service developed by Snap Inc., originally Snapchat Inc. One of the principal features of the multimedia Snapchat is that pictures and messages are usually available for only a short time before they become inaccessible to their recipients. The app has evolved from originally focusing on person-to-person photo sharing to presently featuring users' "Stories" of 24 hours of chronological content, along with "Discover", letting brands show ad-supported short-form content. It also allows users to store photos in a password-protected area called "My Eyes Only". It has also reportedly incorporated limited use of end-to-end encryption, with plans to broaden its use in the future.
Erick Miller is an American entrepreneur and investor who began his career building startups during the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s in San Francisco, California. Miller is the Founder and CEO of CoinCircle, and founding managing director of Hyperspeed Ventures.
Epiphany Eyewear are smartglasses developed by Vergence Labs. The glasses record video stored within the glasses' hardware for live-stream upload to a computer or social media. The glasses use smartphone technology. The head mounted display is a mobile computer and a high-definition camera. The glasses take photographic images, record or stream video to a smartphone or computer tablet.
An optical head-mounted display (OHMD) is a wearable device that has the capability of reflecting projected images as well as allowing the user to see through it. In some cases, this may qualify as augmented reality (AR) technology. OHMD technology has existed since 1997 in various forms, but despite a number of attempts from industry, has yet to have had major commercial success.
Smartglasses or smart glasses are eye or head-worn wearable computers. Many smartglasses include displays that add information alongside or to what the wearer sees. Alternatively, smartglasses are sometimes defined as glasses that are able to change their optical properties, such as smart sunglasses that are programmed to change tint by electronic means. Alternatively, smartglasses are sometimes defined as glasses that include headphone functionality.
castAR was a Palo Alto–based technology startup company founded in March 2013 by Jeri Ellsworth and Rick Johnson. Its first product was to be the castAR, a pair of augmented reality and virtual reality glasses. castAR was a founding member of the nonprofit Immersive Technology Alliance.
The following is a timeline of the history of the photo messaging software Snapchat.
Microsoft HoloLens is an augmented reality (AR)/mixed reality (MR) headset developed and manufactured by Microsoft. HoloLens runs the Windows Mixed Reality platform under the Windows 10 operating system. Some of the positional tracking technology used in HoloLens can trace its lineage to the Microsoft Kinect, an accessory for Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Xbox One game consoles that was introduced in 2010.
Robert Cornelius Murphy is an American Internet entrepreneur and software engineer. He is the co-founder and the CTO of the American multinational technology company Snap Inc., which he created with Evan Spiegel and Reggie Brown while they were students at Stanford University.
Snap Inc. is a technology company, founded on September 16, 2011, by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown based in Santa Monica, California. The company developed and maintains technological products and services, namely Snapchat, Spectacles, and Bitmoji. The company was named Snapchat Inc. at its inception, but it was rebranded Snap Inc. on September 24, 2016, in order to include the Spectacles product under the company name.
Facebook Stories are short user-generated photo or video collections that can be uploaded to the user's Facebook. Facebook Stories were created on March 28, 2017. They are considered a second news feed for the social media website. It is focused around Facebook's in-app camera which allows users to add fun filters and Snapchat-like lenses to their content as well as add visual geolocation tags to their photos and videos. The content is able to be posted publicly on the Facebook app for only 24 hours or can be sent as a direct message to a Facebook friend.
The Dancing Hot Dog is the name often used to refer to a character and an Internet meme that originated in 2017, after the Snapchat mobile app released an augmented reality camera lens that includes an animated rendering of a dancing anthropomorphic hot dog.
Everysight Ltd. is an Israeli technology company established in 2014 as a spinoff of Elbit Systems. Everysight develops smartglasses based on augmented reality technology for the civilian market. The company's main product is Raptor smartglasses.
Ray-Ban Meta is a range of smartglasses created by Meta Platforms and EssilorLuxottica. They include two cameras, open-ear speakers, a microphone, and touchpad built into the frame. They are latest in a line of smartglasses released by major companies including Snap Inc and Google and are designed as one component of Facebook’s plans for a metaverse.
Project Iris is the codename for an unreleased augmented reality (AR) headset designed and developed by Google. It was intended to resemble ordinary eyeglasses and expected to be released in 2024, until its cancellation in early 2023.
Filters are digital image effects often used on social media. They initially simulated the effects of camera filters, and they have since developed with facial recognition technology and computer-generated augmented reality. Social media filters—especially beauty filters—are often used to alter the appearance of selfies taken on smartphones or other similar devices. While filters are commonly associated with beauty enhancement and feature alterations, there is a wide range of filters that have different functions. From adjusting photo tones to using face animations and interactive elements, users have access to a range of tools. These filters allow users to enhance photos and allow room for creative expression and fun interactions with digital content.
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