Friday, January 07, 2011

ContourGPS Uses Your Smartphone as a Viewfinder [Video]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5727221/contourgps-uses-your-smartphone-as-a-viewfinder

ContourGPS Uses Your Smartphone as a ViewfinderHey, people with ContourGPS sports cameras: CONGRATULATIONS! YOU'VE WON A PRIZE! That camera you've got strapped to your helmet has been hiding a secret Bluetooth chip, which you'll soon be able to use to stream live video to your smartphone.

By applying a firmware upgrade for the camera and downloading a free phone app, Contour GPS users can stream their cameras' view (at 8FPS) to their smartphones over Bluetooth. Having a viewfinder for one of these cameras is a huge deal—it's easy to end up with a poorly-framed video with one of these cameras, since you typically can't preview your shot before recording—but with a range of 30+ feet, there's a lot of room for creative use (Think super simple surveillance, a rear-mounted car camera, confessional-style video, etc.) Here's how it works:

The Android app should be available in Spring, and the iPhone app should follow soon after. Unfortunately, due to differences in Bluetooth handling between Android and iOS, the iPhone version will require a $30 transmitter that slips into an expansion port on the ContourGPS camera.