With the Buckle DVR from Ajoka

Jan 15, 2008 17:11 GMT  ·  By

I guess that there's a private investigator hidden within all of us, because most people would simply love to be able to record what other persons are doing, without them knowing that they're actually being filmed. And here is where the Buckle DVR enters the consumer electronics stage, as this device is cleverly disguised as an ordinary (albeit a bit oversized) belt buckle, but it's actually capable of recording what's going on in front on it.

Manufactured in China and presented in the US by the Ajoka company, the Buckle DVR allows users to "perform personal investigation, conduct secret video surveillance" and is "ideal for any covert operation where gathering evidence is important," as the Ajoka puts it. Practically, the device is nothing more than a micro-camcorder, not a lot different from those embedded in mobile phones.

Thus, this rather peculiar recorder is capable of carrying out real-time recording in 3GP video format, 176x144 pixels (QCIF or quarter CIF) resolution and 15 FPS. Furthermore, the DVR can also record high-quality audio, but there's no info on the quality of the recorded audio stream, and supports only one, continuous recording mode (either until the memory is full or until the user manually switches off the device).

The Buckle DVR has no internal memory, but it relies instead on Micro SD / T-Flash memory cards (128 MB to 2 GB), which allow it to record up to 66 hours of video (the 2 GB version). It is powered by a Li-Ion battery, which offers a functioning life of up to 3 hours, quite enough for most users.

The device will apparently sell for around 150 US dollars, which is not that high a price for those people absolutely keen on posting various NSFW clips on the Internet....because I'm willing to bet that this is exactly the main purpose for which anyone would actually purchase this thing.

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Photo Gallery (2 Images)

The Buckle DVR in action
Button placement on the Buckle DVR
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