By AMY JURRIES
During the Consumer Electronics Show last week, California sports-technology company Liquid Image LLC unveiled a goggle with an integrated digital camera. The concept, which borrows design from the company’s original underwater digital camera mask, will soon enable skiers, snowboarders and other winter fanatics to capture pictures and video without hauling extra equipment along.
The to-be-released Summit Series Snow Camera Goggles will contain an integrated wide-angle lens with 5.0-megapixel resolution (2,560 X 1,920 pixels) and a video mode that records at 720 X 480 resolution at up to 30 frames per second. The camera can be controlled with gloved hands — there are two large buttons on the side of the snow goggles, including one for On/Off/Mode and another to release the shutter.
To take a photo or record a video, turn on the camera, choose mode, then press the shutter button. LED lights inside the goggles indicate current mode. The integrated camera can take up to 16GB of memory using an SD/SDHC Card. A rechargeable lithium battery will last for about two hours of record time or about 2,200 photos, Liquid Image cites.
After a session, you can download your photos and video to a computer via USB or through an SD card slot. The company touts a better point of view than you get from a helmet camera. Pictures and videos will be closer to the image that you are seeing through the lens, the company says.
The Summit Series Snow Camera Goggles will ship to stores this summer (in time for ski season next year) and will retail for about $150. www.liquidimageco.com,
—Amy Jurries is founder and editor of TheGearCaster.com, a blog dedicated to profiling emerging companies and technologies in the outdoor sports industry.
