Schmooze

Laya's augmented reality

If you’re still at a loss as to the significance of augmented reality, Layar’s own explanation from inside the app explains it well: “Layar is a tool to browse the world. It enables exploration, more informed decisions, serendipity and fun. [...] While looking through the phone’s camera lens, a user can see houses for sale popular bars and shops, touristic information of the area, play a live game, etcetera.”

Layar aggregates all those little niggly bits of extra information you often wish you knew when visiting a certain new place–the best way to the train station from the point you’re standing on, where the best cafe is, and so on–and overlays it on the real world as viewed through your phone’s camera. And there is a whole lot more functionality that’s waiting to be realized. Layar’s code lets developers create their own informational overlays for the real world. As the Layar release notes, gaming is a significant potential exploit of the code, with everything from advanced geocaching treasure hunts to virtual shooters being obvious possibilities. There are all sorts of social networking uses too.

via Fast Company