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Take pictures by blinking with Blincam on your glasses

A team in Japan has developed sensors that allow the camera to differentiate between usual blinking and a purposeful wink.

Adam Bolton
Adam Bolton is a contributor for CNET based in Japan. He is, among things, a volunteer, a gamer, a technophile and a beard grower. He can be found haunting many of Tokyo's hotspots and cafes.
Adam Bolton
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Blincam

A team in Japan has made hands-free photography simpler than ever -- at least, for people who wear glasses.

The Blincam is a camera that attaches to specs and takes pictures when you blink -- finally giving you a legitimate reason to wink at everyone and everything.

It operates its shutter when it detects firm, intentional blinks of the eye with patent-pending sensor technology that can differentiate between natural eye-blinking and a concerted effort. With its built-in Bluetooth technology, any images captured by the device is uploaded to a paired phone.

You can see the Blincam in all its glory in the YouTube clip embedded below. The device, which has already received 1,000,000 yen (around $9,400) through Japanese crowdfunding site Makuake, will get a large Kickstarter campaign in November. The company will show off the Blincam at the TechCrunch Disrupt SF event in September, The Bridge reports.

It's reminiscent of the Google Glass concept that was released in 2013. An augmented-reality headset, Glass had the ability to take photos and video without the obvious social gesture of pointing a phone. With that came concerns over privacy, something Blincam's developers will also have to overcome.

The company hopes to release the Blincam on Amazon and other online retailers early next year. A price has yet to be set.