By One of my biggest gripes about augmented reality browsers is that you sort of have to look like a dork as you hold up your phone in front of you aimlessly pointing it around trying to find a pizza place or nearby bar. This method of content location is just a little too foreign for most, but the folks at Layar don’t want that to stop you from using their Reality Browser. The new version unveiled today eliminates the need to open a content layer or even search. The app launches and immediately presents the user with a list of the most popular or relevant nearby items in a list format.
The content is updated in real time based on several factors including proximity and user preferences. Of course, it wouldn’t be an augmented reality browser without actual augmented reality, so users can always hold up their phone to help locate the things they find interesting from the list view.
Layar has surpassed 700 published content layers bringing 2.4 million objects into users’ augmented worlds each day. As a service they have reached more than 2 million users. The perception of the way we find things with a mobile device will need to change a bit more before augmented reality becomes a standard or norm, but Layar seems to be doing a well-enough job to spur the technology ahead.
[via MobileCrunch]
This would be a great idea for tourism. Let the phone show you the city.
If I hold my phone up to Biscayne Blvd. in Miami will prostitutes start popping up on screen? If not, why not?
lmao @ jo
I think its pretty tight. Makes me want to go outside and walk places
@Jo lmao!!!!
Is there are Layar for Yelp? I heard there was one, but I couldn’t find it when I searched for it.
I find it ironic that your biggest concern is you “look like a dork as you hold up your phone in front of you”, when by default you are a dork by writing an article on this subject (just as I am for reading these kind of articles).
@Jo, they would have to be GPS enabled or completely stationary. I’d want some movement and while I’m at it I guess we’d need to know where the GPS enabled Vice squad is too.
@tatas, it takes special dorks to submit comments….oh wait.
“digitalicescream”.. that sounds like a good name for an 8-bit prostitute.. wait, what?
jo – yes in theory you could. Layar works on a database driven POI (point of interest) which is the lat and long of a specific object. As long as the ho has a phone which can place her/him with a latlong, all they have to do is log on to the database and there POI will go live. The reason this is theoretical is only becouse I do not know how long it takes for Layar to place POI’s live on the screen once the database has been updated. If its in real time, then you could launch the pimpmyho layar at your leasure….