CES: Looxcie adds live video streaming from headset to smartphones

LooxcieLive takes the original social video camera a step further with live streaming capabilities and two apps: LooxcieCam and LooxcieMoments.

Elizabeth Armstrong Moore

Elizabeth Armstrong Moore is based in Portland, Oregon, and has written for Wired, The Christian Science Monitor, and public radio. Her semi-obscure hobbies include climbing, billiards, board games that take up a lot of space, and piano.

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Elizabeth Armstrong Moore

Jan. 7, 2011 7:04 p.m. PT

LAS VEGAS--When Looxcie, the wearable video recorder, came out last year, we thought it was a bit over the top: "The completely awkward-looking earpiece/camcorder fits the bill for William Gibson-style folk who fear ever missing a moment of reality that can't be recorded."

Now, at CES this week, the folks behind Looxcie say that they will take things even further when, in the first half of 2011, they release LooxcieLive, the first wearable live video streaming from Looxcie headsets to iPhones and Android phones.

Yes, it is now so easy to share our lives with those we love that we never have to actually be in the same place at the same time. Users simply stream what they are watching through Wi-Fi or mobile networks to single or multiple viewers.

Looxcie also offers two smartphone apps: LooxcieCam, which lets users record 30-frames-per-second video in full 480p, and LooxcieMoments, which lets users create and share clips instantly. Both apps are compatible with iPhone iOS 4.2 and higher and Android 2.0 and higher.

As easy as it is to poke fun at the almost desperate immediacy of LooxcieLive, I can see great applications here for sports, recitals, or concerts. These events are already riddled with the thrust-up hands of onlookers recording by cell phone. Will a sea of Looxcie headsets really change much? Just be careful what you're doing if one of them is looking right at you.