Munich-based start-up gobandit GmbH will be announcing early next week at the ISPO sport fair the first GPS-enabled HD action camera.

Like other action cameras this one can be attached to helmet, googles, etc. used in extreme sports, including water sport since the device is IPX7 waterproof rated.

“This is a product for the adrenaline junkies”, said Aleks Ristic, co-founder and CEO of gobandit. “Today on the market there are some GPS camcorders, there are also non-GPS action cameras – although few of them are waterproof – but what we bring to the market is unique.”

The whole concept of this GPS-enabled camera is not much about posting on the web videos with their real-world location but much more linking the video to performance data (speed, distance, altitude) gathered by the GPS. For this purpose gobandit developed video editing software and filed a patent for skins overlaid on the video that display these performances in real-time, customized to the user's preferences.

“It makes a real action video out of a normal video”, added Ristic. “Our concept is shoot, skin, share”.

Videos can be immediately posted to Facebook, Youtube, Vimeo and others.

In terms of hardware, the camera has a 5 Megapixel CMOS sensor that shoot at 30 frames per second (1280*720 Pixels or 640*480) with MPEG4 output or takes still pictures at 2 or 5 seconds intervals. The optics is a fixed focus glass lens with a 135 angle of view. The 1200mA battery offers up to 2 hours recording in HD mode. The GPS is 20 channel low power SiRFStar III receiver.

Gobandit is the second start-up created by the founders, the first one, called Airloft, was bought by GPS maker Navman in 2004 and resulted in SportsTool, a range of GPS-enabled sport performance devices that was launched early 2005 and finally stopped when Navman was sold to Mio in 2007.

Developed in New Zealand and manufactured in Asia, the HD cam from gobandit will sell at €329 (including taxes). The camera will be available in most European countries mid to end of April 2010, as well as in the United States, Australia and New Zealand. The initial retailers and etailers will be specialized sport and camera outlets; gobandit will engage discussion with additional channel partners at the ISPO trade show next week.