Will spy glasses go legit?

SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. -- Spy glasses -- spectacles or sunglasses with hidden lenses -- are for perverts, weirdos, intellectual property thieves and sneaky bastards in general, right? But that could change. Glasses are actually a great place to put a digital camera.

Spy cameras have been around for decades -- even in the film-camera days. They were used by real spies, private eyes, perverts and others, just like digital spy glasses are today. The old spy cameras were about the size of, well, a camera phone. (In fact, a company called Minox recently unveiled a "retro" digital camera styled after the old film spy cameras.)

Although tiny spy cameras like this used to be associated with shady characters, the widespread use of camera phones has removed the social stigma of taking pictures with a tiny camera.

Spy glasses are still illicit, however. You typically buy these things in over-priced spy catalogs, where you can also purchase surveillance equipment, personal protection products and other kinds of hidden cameras -- hidden in clocks, smoke detectors and places like that.

But unlike other kinds of hidden cameras, spy glasses make enormous sense for legitimate use. You're already wearing the glasses, and you're already pointing them at whatever it is you're looking at. Wouldn't it be cool to just reach up, press a small button on the side and take a picture?

Now, the first-ever such product is for sale. A discount electronics catalog called Brando is selling sunglasses that have both a 1.3-megapixel digital camera and an MP3 player built right into the frames. These $165 glasses have 2 GB of storage and a rechargeable battery. They connect to your PC via USB. They actually look like vaguely stylish MP3 glasses, and have flip up and swappable lenses.

Another similar product from Brando costs a little more ($186) and doesn't contain the MP3 playing functionality, but adds 30-frames-per-second video and a MicroSD slot.

The MP3 version is sneaky. It has a wireless shutter button you put in your pocket so nobody knows you're taking a picture. Also: The MP3 earbuds helps explain all that extra plastic on the sides of the glasses.

The non-MP3 version is less covert. It has the shutter button on the glasses themselves, and no explanation for the bulky frames. Anyone who looks at these glasses will know that they're not "regular" glasses.

Just as tiny, cell-phone size cameras went legit by widespread use, it would be great to see non-sneaky camera glasses go mainstream as well. As electronics get cheaper and smaller, it's only a matter of time before the additional cost of building a camera into sunglasses becomes trivial. It's a great way to take pictures of things while biking, walking around, driving or whatever. It might even be safer than taking a picture with a camera phone.

Your first reaction to this idea might be revulsion and horror. But with miniaturized digital camera electronics, we really can't rely on the "obviousness" of cameras for privacy anymore. Just about any sights and sounds that can be recorded with human memory can be recorded with digital memory.

Will spy glasses go mainstream? Should they? Or is this just another creepy invasion of privacy?