Who needs night vision goggles when you have your smartphone? While many mobile camera accessories promise to help you take better photos with your smartphone, the $99 Kickstarter-funded Snooperscope turns your phone into a night vision viewfinder.
The Snooperscope is a wireless camera that works in conjunction with your iOS or Android smartphone. Using its accompanying app, you can adjust the Snooperscope settings, take night vision photos and record video.
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This means you’ll supposedly be able to see things clearly in the dark that the naked eye wouldn't be able to detect. The Snooperscope’s Kickstarter video shows this functionality in action during an outdoor nighttime setting. The user peers through the Snooperscope to see objects and plants in his surrounding. He also holds his hand out in front of the lense and then in front of his face to show how much clearer it looks through the Snooperscope.
PSY Corporation LTD, the makers behind the gadget, claim that the Snooperscope can peer through any opaque material that infrared rays can pass through. This means that not only can the Snooperscope see through liquids, inks and textiles, but it can also pick up miniscule objects that wouldn’t ordinarily be visible such as dust particles.
The Snooperscope also lets you see the infrared tracking dots used by Microsoft’s Kinect to track your motion. PSY claims that if you turn on your Kinect, turn off the lights and point the Snooperscope away from the motion sensor, you’ll be able to see this dots all over the room.
The trade off is that you’ll have to deal with adding bulk to your smartphone. The large cylindrical lens, which attaches to your phone via a magnet, noticeably protrudes from the center of your handset, as shown in the company’s images on its Kickstarter page.
Don’t get too excited about the Snooperscope just yet -- it may be a while before you can get one. PSY closes its Kickstarter campaign in five days, although it’s already surpassed its funding goal by about $10,000. Early birds who preordered the device for $39 will get their units in April, while first distribution is scheduled for May and widespread distribution is slated for June 2014.
