Layar Augmented Reality Submitted to the iPhone App Store
Amsterdam based SPRXMobile has submitted its much-anticipated Augmented Reality platform app Layar to Apple for inclusion in the iPhone app store, according to multiple messages from the company on Twitter. Augmented Reality services display data on top of a view of the real physical world.
Augmented Reality apps have been slowly trickling into the iPhone for the last several weeks but Layar's flashy platform for displaying all kinds of different data sets, from Yelp reviews to Trulia real-estate listings, on top of the phone's camera view has been the most eagerly awaited.
Layar has been available on Android handsets for months but doesn't yet, in our experience, deliver the mind-blowing experience there that the company's demo videos imply. It is pretty cool already though and the world of Augmented Reality is young. The iPhone is also a different system.
The current degree of refinement in GPS and map accuracy in the US may need to evolve further before you can reliably stand in front of a place, point an Augmented Reality app at it and get the information that you're looking for - but big picture, nearby information is available now. The act of looking through your phone, at the world around you, at layers of data on top of physical objects, is something that the human mind and user experience design will need to work on before these apps can turn from "wow" to a tool people use daily.
That's our take on it, but iPhone owners should be able to test Layar for themselves soon. In the mean time, 3GS owners might try out DA Transit (iTunes link), an Augmented Reality app for finding transit information around the US that's already live in the iTunes store.
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I have used the Yelp augmented reality app called Monocle (its an easter egg - you have to shake it). It isn't extremely useful yet, but you can see the possibilities in augmented reality. I didn't realize that Layar is leveraging Trulia real estate data, Yelp listings, etc. (given that Yelp has its own AR app). I'm guessing that they are just using the limited APIs that each has extended, in which case, they won't have quite the same user experience as show in the film above, where you can show for homes in Amsterdam using your camera, to say the least. I'll have to check it out and let you know...