Augmented Reality Apps

What is Augmented Reality? According to Wikipedia “Augmented reality (AR) is a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data.” In laymen’s terms, augmented reality applications allow to to overlay computer generated information onto a live image of your world. For example, using your smartphone’s camera, gps, and data connection, the application will take the live image of what ever you are pointing your camera at, and add information such as identifying objects in the image and returning Internet search results on that item. Point your camera at a restaurant, and view recent reviews on the restaurant. Use social networking apps and point the camera to see where your friends are in relation to you.

The Top results for Augmented Reality Apps on Android market are Layer and Wikitude. I have tried both of these and they are indeed very cool. Both tend to be a little information overload, but with some tweaking, the info can be dialed back and be a very useful tool for discovering information about the world around you.

A new app coming into play is Aurasma. This application allows you to identify trigger objects or images that will activate an animation overlay. Check out the video below for an overview of it’s features.