Picture messaging app Snapchat is set to launch sunglasses with a built-in video camera.
The gadget, simply called Spectacles, is expected to be available before the end of the year for around $US130 ($A170).
It will record 10 second clips on a tiny integrated video camera which are then transferred directly to the Snapchat app via wi-fi or Bluetooth.
The camera has a wider lens than typical smartphones - with a 115 degree angle - and records circular video akin to human vision.
Snapchat also announced that it is renaming the company to Snap Inc as it develops further products.
Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snap Inc, said the device would be rolled out slowly.
"We're going to take a slow approach to rolling them out," he told the Wall Street Journal.
"It's about us figuring out if it fits into people's lives and seeing how they like it."
He also told the paper that he tested a prototype while on holiday with his supermodel fiancee Miranda Kerr.
"It was our first vacation, and we went to Big Sur for a day or two. We were walking through the woods, stepping over logs, looking up at the beautiful trees. And when I got the footage back and watched it, I could see my own memory, through my own eyes - it was unbelievable.
"It's one thing to see images of an experience you had, but it's another thing to have an experience of the experience. It was the closest I'd ever come to feeling like I was there again."
