Augmented Reality Applications
October 6th, 2009 by daniel
The buzz term for the last 12 months has been around augmented reality (AR) applications. Lookout Mobile was first introduced to AR capabilities and marketing opportunities by our good friend Anthony from Leo Burnett and since that initial discussion, AR has taken off! Rumors of AR related iPhone apps and concepts centered around how to incorporate AR into iPhone applications swept through blogs and forums like a breath of fresh air – and for good reason. The concept of augmented reality as described on Wikipedia, is a’ live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are merged with or augmented by virtual computer generated imagery – creating a mixed reality. In other words, morphing ones reality in real time with environmental elements via a device – in this case, mobile device. AR has become a reality with the iPhone 3GS due to the compass feature – now the phone can pick up your exact co-ordinates with the use of the compass and GPS features to show virtual items in the real world. Augmented reality examples: a good example is Acrossair, who have taken the AR concept and developed a full suite of apps that include ‘Nearest Tube’, ‘Nearest Metro’ & ‘Nearest Subway’ – these apps allow the user to visually see where the nearest train station via visual arrows and distance. Another great iPhone AR app is Wikitude – combining Wikipedia and geo-tagged information from its users and places it in the users phone when pointed at a relevant monument, landmark, location etc. In addition, Yelp (US), a local directory that helps people find great local businesses like dentists, hair stylists and mechanics has utilized AR to visualize restaurants, cafes and local business with visual reviews. For me, the best indication of things to come is an application for the iPhone 3GS that uses the GPS, compass and camera to show where Tweets are coming from. The application is not available via the App Store but you can view the below clip to see a video demonstration of the App displaying Tweets that are overlaid on the landscape, augmenting your view of the world. With Apple finally opening the door to AR apps and the consequence release of several great AR apps, I feel that the App Store has stepped up a level. I can’t wait to see what’s next. 
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