By Now here is a pretty neat use of augmented reality. Wikitude Drive overlays your route directly on top of what is coming through your camera’s viewfinder, showing you turn-by-turn directions in real time on the real streets you are traversing. It’s sort of like Google Navigation’s ability to get street view images for upcoming turns, only the street view is the exact one you are seeing.
A big advantage? If you are the kind of person who relies heavily on visual orientation this will make your directions crystal clear. You’ll never have to second guess a turn again. A disadvantage? You are going to need a car dock that won’t cover up the camera, which many do.
The app is available today at 10 AM PDT (that’s 1 PM EDT), but only the first 2000 downloads get to be involved in a special “test drive.” After that it will be pulled from the market. So if this is something you could be interested in definitely get your Android Market loaded up and ready come then.
“A disadvantage? You are going to need a car dock that won’t cover up the camera, which many do.”
Never got why the Droid car dock covered up the camera. That was the first thing I noticed when I unboxed the dumb thing!
On Amazon Germany, there is a car holder called “Hama Universal Multihalter”, where the cam is free in the back for many Android phones. I tested G1, G2, HTC Tattoo, Nexus One, Droid, LG Optimus.
http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B000NRVRC0?ie=UTF8&tag=wikitude-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1638&creative=6742&creativeASIN=B000NRVRC0
If someone finds a car holder available in the US that works for Android phones (cam shoudl be free), please post the link here.
Phil
sorry if i missed something but where do i download this?
Fantastic!
Can’t find it in the Market with Incredible
Just so others know, the beta software will be released at 10am PST (so 1pm ET)
http://www.wikitude.org/category/02_wikitude/wikitude-drive
Waiting 9 minutes to download!
WOOO Got my Beta! can’t wait to test it Out!
got it – booya!
I just got it (so there are only 1,999 left :-) ). Now the fun will begin trying it. I’m guessing (with the camera running) that this will suck the battery right out of my DI.
I GOT MINE!
Anyone able to find this app in the market??
Just got it. Excited to test it out soon.
Downloaded it, running android 1.6 and like it except for the fact it is Kilometers instead of miles. It would be really great if it was configurable for km vs. m.
just dl’d it cant wait to try it out! thanks phandroid!
CR, search wikitude. it will come up. i have an INC also. showed just fine.
got it :)
That looks very distracting! I have a hard enough time going backwards, reminding myself to not just stare at my backup camera’s output. This seems ten times worse!
I like the concept, but not the execution.
Wouldn’t take much to convert this into a HUD for your windshield.
has anyone been able to download this yet? I have not found it on the market?
I got it too!!!
Will give it a test drive shortly.
SO far so good. I tried it on the 55 south in Newport Beach. G1
They need to make a transparent arrow there…otherwise it’s no better than a normal GPS. Knowing what’s ahead of you when looking down at the augmented reality navigation app can be distracting (and dangerous, i’ve used a GPS before..i would know :P). Keeping it transparent would be great..that was my real excitement being augmented reality, being able to see what’s in front of you while looking at directions simultaneously.
WORKS GREAT SO FAR AND I DONT EVEN HAVE A CAR DOCK BETTER GET ONE
Its a shame the beta is only available in the US.
It looks like it could be really distracting though, and I expect it could cause a lack of concentration looking at the screen rather than the road and your mirrors.
@Jeff, I fixed that issue with my Droid dock with a drill and a bit of patience. Camera is now free to see the world. It’s great for capturing time-lapse roadtrips and for an app like this.
Thats gotta be the worst demo ever. Shows the car taking no turns following the augmented reality, and the annoying soundtack covers up any nav audio being spoken; while the annoying titles cover the main part of the screen.
Got it this morning (seems to still be available though). Working pretty good, few bugs reported for force closes – but it’s beta and expected. Pretty cool app, needs some feature expansion to become a replacement for what’s out there, but I expect that will come.
Unfortunately, I am too late to try the demo which is a real pity as i’d love to see how it really performs. As the developer of a similar app called AugSatNav I can appreciate the difficulties you face when creating an AR Satnav.
As cwrig points out its taking turns which really prove to be most difficult as the in-built compasses in modern smartphones do not work well inside vehicles. In my app, when selecting “driving mode” I had to calculate the bearing of the phone using GPS fixes which is hardly ideal.
Anyway, for those of you who downloaded the app do let us know how you get on. I honestly hope it’s as good as it looks!
@ miles; that would explain why the demo shows no turns. Very interesting; thanks for the explanation.
god damned all of you
why should not all of you give a link