How Augmented Reality Browsers Stack Up For Navigating London

We've mentioned the tantalizing possibilities of augmented reality here several times, including Microsoft's stab (using scene recognition) as an information overlay for cell phones, and some display technologies that could make a Terminator-style information overlay on the real world possible without even looking down at a screen, including both glasses with microdisplays and contact lenses. An anonymous reader points to this two-part review of several cell phone apps, in which the writer has "tested several mobile augmented reality browsers and their ability to find places to eat and function as a tourist guide by identifying tourist attractions in London," writing, "This is the first review I have seen where all the browsers have been compared together; what's interesting is all the browsers use different data sources, and so either miss popular locations or give the wrong location."

Comments

Coming maybe but definitely not here

[chazchaz101]

The fact that the review ends with "it’s sometimes easier to find the object on the map view first, that way when you switch the camera view it’s selected and saves you searching around." is a clear sign that so called augmented reality really isn't there when it comes to its primary promised benefit of making information about one's location trivially easy to access.