Capture the Moments In-Between BLINCAM, INC. IP

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BLINCAM’s wearable camera snaps onto your glasses and activates with a wink

Eye technology is fast becoming one of the key battlegrounds of wearable tech. BLINCAM, a wearable camera operated simply by winking, fills the need for a device that’s not as adventure-oriented as an action camera, but more hands-free than a smartphone – and cheaper, too!


BLINCAM works by sensing muscle movement around the temple.

As father to a young daughter, BLINCAM, INC. CEO Shota Takase wanted to chronicle her journey as completely as he could. But he found that each time he reached for his smartphone he would miss the moment. “I wanted to capture my kid through my eyes – through a parent’s eyes,” he explains. “And not the special moments per se, but the moments in-between.”

It was at a Startup Weekend event in Tokyo in 2015 that Takase presented the idea for a camera with a shutter triggered by winking. A few months later, he founded BLINCAM.


BLINCAM, INC. CEO Shota Takase at his Tokyo office.

Non-Intrusive Eye Movement Sensor

The core technology behind BLINCAM’s namesake product is a patent-pending eye movement sensor that can differentiate between an involuntary blink or twitch and a deliberate wink. The sensor is built into a marker-sized camera that weighs 25 grams and is fixed onto the temple area of a user’s glasses.

“From a consumer comfort standpoint, we realized that it had to be non-contact, and easy to attach and remove,” explains Takase. BLINCAM can be hooked onto your glasses with one hand, and it’s easily detachable. “Plus,” Takase adds, “people want to wear their own glasses, not compromise style for technology.” The company even took into consideration privacy concerns, intentionally not designing the device too small, as people could feel their privacy was being infringed by a hard-to-spot camera. The design rights are currently pending.


BLINCAM weighs 25 grams and is roughly the size of a marker.

The dedicated BLINCAM app will further sync the device to your smartphone, downloading any pictures you take (the device is also USB compatible). Although video capabilities will not come until 2017, when compared to action cameras, BLINCAM is even now much less cumbersome and much simpler to use – and at a projected retail price of US$180, much more affordable. It has an eight-hour battery life, with 16 gigabytes of memory.

Center of the Next Wave of Wearables

Takase recognizes BLINCAM’s potential in fields like medicine, journalism and manufacturing, especially for the purposes of compliance, quality control and archiving. He also aims to make the product available to rent through travel agencies and at amusement parks.

In future the sensor will detect different eye gestures, which could in turn be used to control any number of tasks, from turning on your TV to toggling your car navigation system while driving.

Funded to 2,600 percent, a wildly successful Japanese crowdfunding campaign marked an auspicious start for BLINCAM, which is on track to ship at the end of 2016, with a global crowdfunding campaign already started on Indiegogo as of October 2016.


Envisaged use of the BLINCAM camera; courtesy of BLINCAM, INC.

It seems BLINCAM will be upon us in the blink of an eye!

Based on interview in September 2016


Website: BLINCAM, INC.External site: a new window will open.