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Smartphones Get "Reality Overlay" App

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the build-me-a-bigger-battery dept.

Michael_Curator writes to tell us that mobile phones now have a "reality overlay" app that combines a smartphone's camera, GPS, and compass to augment a user's view of a particular location with metadata. "It works as follows: Starting up the Layar application automatically activates the camera. The embedded GPS automatically knows the location of the phone and the compass determines in which direction the phone is facing. Each [commercial] partner provides a set of location coordinates with relevant information which forms a digital layer. By tapping the side of the screen the user easily switches between layers."

4 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. Guided world tour by reginaldo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Excellent, now the entire world is like a guided museum tour.

    'And on our right here, we have the parking lot that is affectionately nicknamed 'The Hobo's Restroom'. Please watch your step.'

  2. I can see it now by SoVeryTired · · Score: 5, Funny

    I wake up in the darkness, totally lost. I fumble for my smartphone, knowing it's the only was I'll manage to reach home before dawn.
    What I see is not comforting.

    "It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue."

    --
    Slashdot: news for Apple. Stuff that Apple.
  3. Phht by argStyopa · · Score: 5, Funny

    /unimpressed.

    Call when they develop THIS app.

    http://www.pictureshack.net/images/9846newlayar.JPG

    (Yes, it's sloppy; it was a very quick photoshop.)

    --
    -Styopa
  4. Re:Not original, not a "Killer App" by Fallen+Seraph · · Score: 5, Insightful

    First off, you're thinking of Wikitude, and I agree, it's not original, the idea's been around for a while, it just hasn't been entirely feasible till now.

    But it's far from useless. Just because YOU don't have a use for it doesn't mean others don't. I, for instance, am a huge astronomy buff, and think that Google Sky Map is very cool. Instead of spending an hour orienting and aligning my telescope to Polaris, and constantly tweaking it, I can point my phone at the sky and it's tell me what I'm looking at and where to find other objects. Very handy for me, not so handy for someone who doesn't go outside.

    Last year I spent a week in Europe, including Prague, and would've loved to have Wikitude point out building data and points of interest. It's a brilliant tool for tourists.

    The technology is VERY useful, but it's only in it's infancy right now. Once upon a time people thought GPS was useless when it was first introduced to the commercial sector. Now many people can barely drive without it. Whether you like it or not, semantically associating data online with reality is the future, and makes that data infinitely more useful.


    PS - Maybe you'd find a use for it if you ever went outside ;)