Over the past few months I’ve been working on the Nesta & Nominet Trust funded project HypARlocal (we really should get around to changing the name, suggestions?), where we are focussing on taking geolocated news content from hyperlocal blogs and publishing it for smart devices to find based on their location.
I’ve been quite wrapped up in the geolocation of content and pushing it out to Layar & Wikitude that I had stopped looking at what other AR things were out there.
I’ve been revisiting the app store and playing about with some of the new and some of the old apps to see whats new or how they have changed.
String, install the app print off some targets, point your phone at them and watch what they do. Along the same lines as Blippar & Aurasma where image recognition is used to trigger actions.
Aurasma, we have played with this quite a bit recently and have come up with some interesting public service uses for Aurasma and other image recognition apps. I’ll be writing a bit more on that soon but if you were at the Nesta event a few weeks ago you will have seen Will and I demonstrating one of our ideas.
One of my favourite apps that sort of falls in to the Augmented Reality group is Star Chart for the iPhone, for £1.99 I think it is worth the money. Fire it up point it at the sky roughly where you are looking and the stars and planets are shown relative to your location so you can work out what you are looking at.
because it doesn’t use the camera it just uses your location and the direction the phone is pointing, it also works during the day.
If you often lie on your back in a park watching planes fly over head and wonder where they are going then the Plane Finder app is the one for you. Again it is a paid for app but based on your location it finds planes and then overlays them on to the camera view of the sky. There is a free (ad supported) version and a paid for version.
I’ve nicked a screen shot from the app page here because it is raining in Stoke and there are actually no planes around to see.
I’m sure you have all seen the ads on TV for the Halifax home finder app? An obvious and interesting use of geolocation and AR, worth a look even if you aren’t looking for a new house.
And finally if you want to see Zombies climbing out of your tiled floor then Zombie Hunt is the app for you.
What are your favourite Augmented Reality apps? Share them in the comments below.
Mike Rawlins
Away from Talk About Local I take photos, fly my quadcopter and walk my two Beagles.
If I'm not doing any of the above then you'll find me volunteering at my local RNLI station as a press officer.
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