From recording contact lenses to bullet proof underwear – you could be using these Batman gadgets one day

WHEN Batman first hit the silver screen in 1966, he was hardly the gadget-laden hero he’s known as now.

But in the years that followed, he acquired a vast arsenal of tech – and there’s plenty that you yourself could be using.

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In the television show and later in the first Batman movie, the hero’s utility belt was hugely underwhelming by today’s standards.

Carrying unremarkable contents like Bat-shark repellent, early Batman was more of a gimmick than the hardened and self-serious hero we know today.

The modernized Batman is hulking presence with enough technology to find and trap the Joker before his butler Alfred Pennyworth has his slippers on. 

Essays done on Christian Bale’s and Robert Pattinson’s Batman found that the cost of being the vigilante hero teeters on the edge of a billion dollars.

Spending this much on weaponry and military grade defense equipment might be flagged by the forensic accounting division of the FBI, which would blow your secret identity.

But, if you could find a way to keep your vigilante plans under wraps, maybe through the help of a sympathetic police commissioner, you might find a way to tech up just like the caped crusader.

Here’s what’s available to you now, or will be in the near future for heroes getting their start today. 

Fans of Robert Pattinson’s Batman are sure to remember his first collaboration with Zoe Kravitz’s Catwoman.

Batman equips Catwoman with a set of contact lenses that record the objects in her focus and periphery. 

But there are all sorts of applications for recording and augmented reality contact lenses outside of snooping on the criminal underworld in the Iceberg Lounge. 

You could capture memories with the blink of an eye, relive moments as you first saw them by watching recordings and even receive real time directions as you track down bad guys (or simply walk around a new city). 

Two companies, Mojo Vision and Innovega, are on the precipice of testing camera-laden lenses on people. 

“Smart contact lenses are a thing. There isn’t a product that you can go out and buy right now, but I can tell you, there will be,” Mojo Vision’s Chief Technology Officer Mike Wiemer told Business Insider.

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The Bat-cape

Being Batman comes with the implication that heights won’t be a problem.

The most detailed on-screen description of the Bat-cape comes from Christopher Nolan’s trilogy.

In Nolan’s world, the Bat-cape is made of flexible cloth, but wired with an electrical charge so that it can stiffen for gliding.

MadScience reported that this type of fabric might not be achievable yet, but the capabilities of wingsuits are well known and demonstrated by adrenaline seekers.

In the latest Batman movie, Robert Pattinson swaps out cape-based flight for a full body wing suit as he cuts through the Gotham night. 

A wing suit can be yours for just $1,200 – ask your butler if he can dye it black. 

The grappling gun

You’ll need to get up pretty high to make your investment in the wing suit worth it – and the ease of an elevator just doesn’t suit Batman. 

The only gun that Batman uses – the grappling gun – is one of his favorite gadgets.

Whether it’s for evading Jack Nicholson’s Joker in Batman or stringing up Heath Ledger’s Joker in the climax of The Dark Knight, the grappling gun is a combination of speed, power and subtlety.

Built IRL, a YouTube channel dedicated to “making and doing In Real Life what you’ve only ever seen in fiction” constructed a working grappling gun with enough power to lift a person into the air. 

Built IRL’s grappling gun also works for descents – in case your wingsuit is at the dry cleaner. 

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Bullet-proof underwear

Like most comic book heroes, Batman wears his tighties on the outside of his costume.

For the reasonable price of $575, a pair of bulletproof undies can be yours.

Made by Active Violence Solutions, the pair is safe “against handgun threats up to .44 magnum and virtually every shotgun threat.”

And yes, Master Wayne, they come in black.

Putting it all together

Once you’ve suited up in your open-source Batsuit, you’re ready to go clean up the streets.

But you won’t be the first hero on the block. 

Julian Checkley, a Batman cosplayer, set the Guinness World Record for most functional gadgets attached to a Batman suit with 23.

If this is too much – in cost or physical strain – you can always just watch the movie or read the comics and revel in fandom.

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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk