Snooperscope
Snooperscope is a portable Night Vision device that can be used with a smartphone or tablet and used as an extra camera to see in complete darkness.
| Also known as | Snooperscope Night Vision Device |
|---|---|
| Developer | Marco Montresor Eros Luca Parise |
| Type | Night Vision Device for smartphone |
| Release date | June, 2014 (expected) |
| Website | snooperscope |
A Kickstarter campaign was launched in November 2013 to raise funds for Snooperscope. The campaign ended on December 25 with a total of £79,686 pledged. The devices were expected to be shipped out by June 2014. As of 2018, the website is defunct.
Background
Funding
The Kickstarter campaign of Snooperscope was launched on November 25, 2013 with a stated goal of securing a funding of £40,000 in 30 days. After being featured on multiple blogs and media outlets, the Kickstarter campaign went viral. Snooperscope surpassed the £40,000 goal in 12 days and acquired less than two-times of its goal in 30 days. The campaign closed on December 25 with a total of £79,686 pledged from 1,556 backers. The devices are expected to be delivered to the backers by June 2014.
For a £26 pledge, donors were offered the device and the application, with a choice of colors.
Current Status
The device appears to have disappeared from the market, as the supplier has ceased all contact with the retailers, although none have been informed of any reason for a random disappearance. The company's webserver delivers a blank page for the index file and none of the old addresses return anything useful.
Development
Snooperscope was developed by Marco Montresor and Eros Luca Parise, Italians. According to Marco, he came up with the idea of Snooperscope after having developed several applications with some camera devices for smartphones in 2013 and "noticing that my awesome devices are lacking the most intuitive input camera sensor for night vision." Marco then quit his day job of an application developer, teamed up with his friend Eros, and started working on the development of the Snooperscope. During the development of the device, the team grew to include a usability experience specialist, and a web developer.
By late 2013, the team had many working prototypes and models of the Snooperscope, all of which were made using 3D printing.
Device
Snooperscope can be used with smartphones and tablets. The application works by running on Android and iOS as a display service.
Snooperscope is available in four colors - black, white, hunter, and camouflage.
In the media
When the Kickstarter campaign of Snooperscope was launched in November 2013, it was featured in multiple publications and technology blogs.