{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1427888"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1427888/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2018KP4742/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2018KP4742/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2018KP4742","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KP4743","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KP4750","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KP4752","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KP4763","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KP4756","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KP4745","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O1427888/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1427888","accessionNumber":"CD.13:1 to 6-2018","objectType":"Camera enabled spectacles","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"The Snapchat Spectacles were a pair of ‘smartglasses’ created in November 2016 by Snap Inc., creators of social media network Snapchat. Spectacles were designed with Lauryn Morris as design lead, an industrial designer who previously worked with Zac Posen and Michael Kors in their eyewear departments. With a camera embedded into a pair of sunglasses, Spectacles are dedicated to recording shareable video and images for immediate upload to the users account on Snapchat.\n\r\nSnap Inc. is the governing company of popular social media platform Snapchat, launched in September 2011 by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown. Snapchat was created with ephemeral media at the forefront. Snapchat’s media posts, otherwise known as ‘Snaps’ (video and image messages sent between users), last up to thirty seconds before becoming inaccessible to other users. Snapchat also includes features that show if other users took screenshots of a Snap and save them, allowing for a degree of transparency between users. Snapchat has more than 300 million monthly active users according to an August 2017 report by Omnicore, with over 1 million ‘Snaps’ and 400 million Snapchat ‘Stories’ (images and videos uploaded to the platform and watchable by friends) sent every day. The app has a young demographic – it is used by 42% of 18 - 24 year olds in the US as reported by digital marketing agency Omnicore on 1 January 2018.  \n\r\nThe glasses are made from moulded plastic with a built in battery, charged by a USB charging chase and lead. The camera, with a lens capable of a 115 degree field of view, also houses a ring of LED lights that indicate the battery level and when the camera is recording. Users can capture up to 10 seconds of footage, which syncs with the user’s smartphone via Wifi and Bluetooth. Spectacles were announced on 23 September 2016, during a rebrand from Snapchat Inc., to Snap Inc., ‘a camera company’. Spectacles were released on 10 November 2016, initially distributed exclusively through Snap's pop-up vending machine, Snapbot, in limited quantities and locations, leading to eBay auctions of the object reaching up to $5,000. On 20 February 2017, Snap Spectacles became available for purchase online. As of October 2017, around 150,000 pairs of spectacles had been sold.\n\r\nOn 23 October 2017, news site The Information reported that ‘hundreds of thousands’ of Spectacles, assembled and unassembled, were sitting unsold in warehouses. On 7 November 2017, Snap confirmed in their Third Quarter 2017 report that they had lost nearly $40 million on the device, ‘primarily related to excess inventory reserves and inventory purchase. Spectacles were collected by the V&A for Rapid Response Collecting as an example of a personal technology created as a complement to a networked platform, which ultimately failed to gain widespread public adoption and use. In this way, Spectacles sit alongside collection objects such as Google Glass as an evolution and adaptation of this design form, and ultimately, shares its failure. The creation of Spectacles marks a development beyond Google Glass’s original objectives which were largely individual and assistive, to a more social relationship with smart eyewear and their relevant platforms. Snap’s significant losses show a lack of public interest in these platform-dependent commodities. Rather than being solely for the wearer to view content through or record for personal use, Spectacles are designed with broadcast and content creation in mind. \n\r\nSpectacles also complements DAD’s growing collection of wearable technologies, as well as its relation to objects that explore the role of social media in everyday life, such as the acquisition of WeChat in 2017. \r\n","physicalDescription":"","artistMakerPerson":[],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"plastic","id":"AAT14570"}],"techniques":[],"materialsAndTechniques":"","categories":[{"text":"Rapid Response Collecting","id":"THES262867"},{"text":"Digital Design","id":"THES273936"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"DAD","id":"THES260586"},"images":["2018KP4742","2018KP4743","2018KP4750","2018KP4752","2018KP4763","2018KP4756","2018KP4745"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"027","id":"THES412823"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"027","id":"THES412823"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"027","id":"THES412823"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"027","id":"THES412823"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"027","id":"THES412823"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"027","id":"THES412823"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"spectacles","id":"AAT236409"}],[{"text":"cases","id":"AAT45659"}],[{"text":"cables","id":"AAT50615"}],[{"text":"wallet","id":"AAT46230"}],[{"text":"Packaging","id":"AAT55100"}],[{"text":"Lid","id":"AAT45712"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[],"productionDates":[],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Width","value":"13.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"Glasses","date":{"text":"16/09/2019","earliest":"2019-09-16","latest":"2019-09-16"},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"14.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"Glasses","date":{"text":"16/09/2019","earliest":"2019-09-16","latest":"2019-09-16"},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"Glasses","date":{"text":"16/09/2019","earliest":"2019-09-16","latest":"2019-09-16"},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"18","unit":"cm","qualifier":"Glasses tube","date":{"text":"16/09/2019","earliest":"2019-09-16","latest":"2019-09-16"},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Diameter","value":"9.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"Glasses tube","date":{"text":"16/09/2019","earliest":"2019-09-16","latest":"2019-09-16"},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"A pair of plastic bluetooth-linked Snap Inc. spectacles with embedded camera. ","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["CD.13:1-2018","CD.13:2-2018","CD.13:3-2018","CD.13:4-2018","CD.13:5-2018","CD.13:6-2018"],"accessionNumberNum":"13","accessionNumberPrefix":"CD","accessionYear":2018,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-11-27","recordCreationDate":"2018-01-11","availableToBook":false}}