Sure, you may already lead an exciting life, but wouldn't it be great if
you could broadcast those daily escapades -- you know, to all of your
internet friends? ZionEyez hopes to deliver a method for sharing your
point of view -- quite literally -- in realtime, across the web. The
company's first product, a set of 720p embedded-camera eyeglasses called
Eyez, houses a tiny camera to the left of the standard-size eyeglass
lens, with a processor, Bluetooth and WiFi module embedded in the
adjacent ear piece. We first read about the inconspicuous specs when the
company launched a Kickstarter page, netting nearly $350,000 in pledges
from curious backers, but just had an opportunity to spend a few hours
with the device, recording the journey to a meeting in New York City.

The
issue of privacy is first to come to mind -- there's really no way to
tell that the glasses contain a tiny camcorder (with mono audio capture)
without an up-close inspection. It's not the first "spy cam" to come to
market, however, though it may be the first with the possibility of
becoming mainstream. Future Eyez owners will be responsible for
disclosing when they hit record, so be sure to review (and observe) the
laws for your locale.

The prototype we used was limited to local
storage -- a separate, bulkier proto contained the radios necessary for
wireless streaming, but wasn't available today. The 720p video quality
wasn't spectacular, with horizontal bands of noise in shadow areas, but
we were reminded many times that this is a very early prototype. We're
told that the final version will be much sleeker (perhaps no larger than
a pair of plastic Ray Bans), with much more polished video. Audio was a
bit tinny as well, but we had no problem understanding the speaker as
long as we weren't recording in a noisy, cavernous room. The Eyez
weren't fully charged before our shoot, but we're told to expect between
two and three hours of juice from the 350mAh battery, which you can
charge using the proprietary USB cable.

ZionEyez reps weren't
able to confirm a release date, but they did confirm a $199 price tag
and showed us a mock-up of the final version, which looked fantastic.
Since the Eyez themselves will be quite visible, exterior appearance is
certainly not to be overlooked, but video quality is equally important.
Check out the footage below for a very early look, keeping in mind that
there's still plenty of time to work out the kinks before these start
popping up on a temple near you.