Explore Audio Augmented Reality With Toozla

lester — Thu, 27 May 2010 17:16:34 +0000

As part of our count of all the mobile applications that make claim to being ‘augmented reality’ applications we counted over 340 for the iPhone alone. Of those 340 at least 140 are augmented reality browsers that display POIs in the camera view. While we are on course for hitting 200 browsers by the end of the year, its reassuring that some companies are bucking the trend and trying something different. Toozla, a Russian company is one such company who have decided that the camera enabled AR market space is a crowded one and are investigating new ways to deliver content to users.

With Toozla there is no map or camera view, instead when you come in range of something interesting Toozla will tell you about it by speaking an overview. If you stick around in the area then Toozla will continue speaking giving you more details about the POI. Toozla users have access to around 171,000 Wikipedia articles which are converted to audio using text to speech technology, and better yet, users are able to record their own reviews of attractions for others so the content will just grow even larger. In addition to the Wikipeda or Wikistreams as they are called, users can subscribe to other ’channels’ such as Tourism, Hotels, or even the Weather and Chat channel.

Toozla could be indispensable for travellers looking for their own personal travel guide, particularly as the Tourism channel is a professionally produced multilingual audio guide that cover the most popular cities. As Tooza is designed to be a platform individuals and companies are able to create audio guides for others to enjoy, so I’m sure that it will only be a matter of time before we start to see Lonely Planet style channels with even richer content.

I like the application, it’s a really interesting idea and I feel safer somehow not waving my phone around and advertising it to potential thieves. It would be nice however to have a map view that indicates where you can find content. Without a visual indication locating content, I feel like I am missing out just by being on the wrong side of the road.

Get Toozla

Toozla is free and available on a variety of devices, including the iPhone, various Nokia’s, Sony Ericsson’s, and the Palm Treo, which we don’t get to say very often. (full list check here). Toozla will be available on the Android very soon.

Toozla in action

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5tnaGMJONc

The Worlds First Audio Augmented Reality Browser

lester — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:11:57 +0000

A couple of months ago I was at an event in London listening to the panel of augmented reality experts taking questions from the audience. One question that was posed was: “why don’t we see any augmented reality applications that use audio rather than visual?’. It was an interesting question and the panel were unable to agree if audio based solutions would be classed as augmented reality. The panel was split, those that had augmented reality browsers thought that these potential solution would indeed be include, while those that have marker based solution were not convinced.

I’m in favour, the introduction of mobile augmented reality browsers has forced a rethink on what the technology actually is, audio augmented reality browsers are about muddy the water even further. (feel free to agree or disagree with me)

Toozla - The Audio Augmented Reality Browser

Toozla have just announced the launch of what I think is the worlds first augmented reality sound browser. It works just like Layar or Wikitude in that it uses location based services to determine your current location and then depending on what channels you are subscribed to will give you an audio commentary. The channels include a Tourist channel for finding information on nearby landmarks, a Services channel to receive promotional information from shops and business and a Weather and Chat channel.

Toozla in action

www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5tnaGMJONc

Audio augmented reality browsers are an interesting idea. My iPhone cost me around £300 + a continued £35 a month for the next 18 months so I get a little apprehensive when I take it out to perform an augmented reality test on some dark corner. Waving an iPhone around in the dark on the streets of London is asking for attention from the wrong sort of people. I like the idea of Toozla, it’s novel and useful especially if you are on holiday and looking for a city guide, and you don’t have to wave an expensive item around.

Some of the Toozla channels are worldwide (for example the services and weather channels), but to catalogue the tourist attractions in major cities, and to localize in to various languages is no easy task and as such the tourist channel is expanding. You can get a complete list of what is available in each location here. Toozla is available for a number of devices (iPhone and Android are in development), but if you have one of the following you can give it ago:

Compatible devices
Toozla has been tested by developers on the following devices, and has been found to work correctly:

Nokia E51, E63, E66, E71, E75, E55, Nokia N76, N78, N79, N81, N81 8GB, N82, N85, N86 8MP, N95, N95-3, N95 8GB, N96, Nokia 5320 XpressMusic, 5630 XpressMusic, 5700 XpressMusic, 5730 XpressMusic, 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia 6110, 6110 Navigator, 6120 Classic, 6121 Classic, 6124 classic, 6220 classic, 6290, 6650, 6720 classic, 6710 Navigator

Toozla has been tested by beta testers on the following devices, and has been reported to work correctly:

Motorola A1200, Nokia 6300, 7610, 5300, Nokia N73, Sony-Ericsson W810i, W700i, K810i, T250i, P800, PalmOne Treo 755p

Toozla works in limited mode* (devices without built-in GPS) on the following devices:

Samsung SGH-X820

To download visit Toozla.com

Augmented Planet » audio

Explore Audio Augmented Reality With Toozla

The Worlds First Audio Augmented Reality Browser