Helmet-cams get location-aware with ContourGPS

We're fans of the ContourHD wearable camcorder. It's easy to use, captures great looking high-def video, and is rugged enough to survive the occasional knock and bump--in fact, we use the 1080p model every week to capture on-the-road footage for Car Tech Live. Today, Contour announces that the latest feature to come to its line of HD helmet-cams: location awareness in the new ContourGPS.

The ContourGPS sports a similar industrial design as the previous ContourHD cameras but the devil's in the details. The most obvious change is the new hump on the record slider. This hump houses the Contour's GPS receiver. The unit also gets a new rear panel and sports the new "Contour" logo (if you're interested in that sort of thing).

From a functionality standpoint, the ContourGPS logs the user's GPS position, elevation, and speed once per second while recording video and stores this information (presumably in the metadata of the video file). When played back using the proper software or uploaded to Contour's online community, the video is presented alongside a Google Map that tracks the cameras position alongside the HD video playback. Check the embedded video below to see this function in action:

Like the ContourHD, the ContourGPS features three video resolutions (HD 720p, Tall HD 980p, and Full HD 1080p) all recorded at 30 frames per second, as well as a 60-frame-per-second Action HD 720p setting. Gone is the SD video capture mode, replaced by a still photo mode that captures sequential static photos at 1- to 60-second intervals.

The ContourGPS will be available worldwide next week at a $349.99 MSRP.