Wikitude, the leading browser for iPhone and Android devices has recently received an iPhone refresh. The new version, version 6.0 features a brand new slicker user interface that shows you exactly how many POIs will be visible before you load the World. This very useful feature saves you loading a World only to find nothing is visible nearby.  Another cool feature that users will appreciate is the customizable home screen where just like the iPhone home screens you can tap and hold the screen to rearrange or add new worlds.

The old style UI is still present under the surface and can be accessed by selecting the ‘Browse Worlds’ option which enables you to search for popular Worlds or by A-Z listings. The Worlds you find here can be added to the new style home screen by clicking the + button so you have complete control.

With version 6.0 the UI is much simpler with less buttons and clutter. The distance functionality for example is now no longer found buried in a menu but is accessed by clicking the radar display.

One thing (still) missing from the new version is the ability to test your Worlds on the iPhone by entering your Beta-World key. World developers will still need an Android device for testing.

Update
An update to the blog entry.

Developers building Wikitude Worlds are now able to test their Worlds using their iPhone. The setting to enter your beta key can be found in the iPhone’s setting menu. In addition to testing Worlds you can also set your latitude/longitude location to simulate your location. Useful for when you want to test your content.

Android owners will have to wait a little longer for the update but iPhone owners should take a look at the refresh. The video below shows you all you need to know about the update.

The new Wikitude in action

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAcAHgUge-8

Related posts:

1. Wikitude For The iPhone – First Look
2. Wikitude World Browser Update – Quick Look
3. Wikitude 4 For The Android With Video

Congratulations to the guys over at Toozla. Toozla is free so If you haven’t already installed it, you can find it in the iPhone App Store, Android Marketplace or bada users follow these steps.

• Go to Samsung Apps using your phone.
• Run a search for applications using the word “Toozla”.

Related posts:

1. Rise of the undead for the Samsung bada
2. Explore Audio Augmented Reality With Toozla
3. Toozla beta for Android owners

mTrip is an augmented reality browser specifically developed with tourism in mind. It is without doubt the most compressive travel guide out there and regardless of your views on augmented reality, an essential application for the traveller.

Not only does mTrip enable you to navigate and find useful things in a city, the application downloads all the POIs to your phone and thereby eliminates all the roaming fees associated with travelling.

Like with the iPhone (sorry) the application sports an augmented reality view that enables you to see POIs in the camera window. Perfect for trying to identify those famous landmarks.

Features include:

• Automated Trip Planning – Create your personalized travel itinerary with mTrip’s exclusive technology.
• Navigation & Augmented Reality – Get directions and view the city through augmented reality
• Get expert content with ratings updated daily on your Android, iPhone or iPod Touch
• Trip Sharing – Share postcards with family and friends on Facebook & email

mTrip in action

www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1P4ptyOwR4

mTrip is available for the following cities

Europe

• Amsterdam
• Barcelona
• Berlin
• Dublin
• Istanbul
• London
• Madrid
• Moscow
• Munich
• Paris
• Rome
• Venice
• Vienna

North America

• Chicago
• Los Angeles
• New York
• San Francisco
• Washington DC

Asia

• Beijing
• Shanghai
• Singapore
• Tokyo

Related posts:

1. mTrip Augmented Reality Travel Guide Promotion
2. mtrip Augmented Reality City Guides
3. Tupalo now with scanAR (Android)

A year ago we reviewed the application fully when Yell first added augmented reality functionality to the client. If you have used an augmented reality browser before you’ll know sometimes that it can be difficult to select POIs when they are hidden behind each other. Yell solved this problem with one of my favourite features, a rather nifty targeting recital that gave a visual indication on what you were looking at.

The new version of Yell bears no resemblance to its predecessor and has been completely revamped. One of the big differences you’ll notice with the augmented reality view in the new version is the addition of an onscreen map. This rather handy feature saves switching between the AR view and the map view to get your bearings. AR is great for figuring out what is around you and the general direction but it’s not useful for navigating and homing in on the target.

While the map is a welcome addition and very useful, it does feel like it was developed independently. For example, the POIs shown on the map are identified by numbers but the POIs shown in the AR window are identified by name only. Additionally the map is not zoomable so while the map can show 3 POIs the AR window may have 20 or more. But what I would really like to see is the map orientate itself with the direction you are facing so you can use the map to navigate to the target and see the POIs in relation to the map. It will be interesting to see if the map gets perfected and if others copy the map idea.

The rest of the application has be updated significantly to give excellent integration with the phones functionality, for example you can call the business directly with one click or even share the details via SMS/Facebook/Twitter with friends. Useful if you are trying to tell a group of people where to meet.

If you haven’t taken a look at Yell for a while or if you are looking for a local search application then Yell has had a serious revamp and is well worth a look.

Get Yell

Related posts:

1. Yell The Next AR Browser?
2. Wikitude World Browser Update – Quick Look
3. WhereMark Augmented Reality Browser

Tupalo is a free app that enables users to discover restaurants, bars, nightclubs and other interesting things around the city. In addition the application allows users to rate their experience, so if you are looking to try a new restaurant you’ll know what other people think before giving it a try.

Yeah the iPhone has dozens of these applications but it’s good to see the Android getting a few as well. Particularly as the application is available on iPhone already but the augmented reality functionality is hitting the Android first.

Android users can scan the QR Code below to get the app.

Related posts:

1. Wikitude 4 For The Android With Video
2. vouchAR for Android, find bargains with AR
3. ARTags for Android

Presselite, the ever helpful French company who specialise in building mobile augmented reality applications to help users find nearby transport links like busses and train stations have extended their London Tube application to support the locations of the docking stations.

The London Tube app includes an augmented reality view that enables users to visualize the nearest cycle docking station as well as nearby tube stations by holding the iPhones camera and panning around their surroundings, or find locations by viewing on a map. Once you have found your destination, the application will even help you with the navigation helping you arrive safely.

The application will even notify you about disruptions affecting the tube, so for the £0.59 asking price it’s a great little application for Londoners. (Look here for more info about)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXuD3nCBW2I

Related posts:

1. Augmented London – The New iPhone App
2. Explore London with augmented reality
3. Twitter 360 Augmented Reality Application

Related posts:

1. Toozla for bada Devices
2. The Worlds First Audio Augmented Reality Browser
3. Toozla beta for Android owners

A recent comment from Paul on a previous post raises a valid point about mobile AR in general:

I simply don’t see the advantage over using a map. Less battery consuming, no need to hold the phone weirdly, you can still visualize data to figure out the direction the POI is, etc.

I like to think of mobile augmented reality browsers as a bit like Marmite, you either love it, or hate it.

Love it
Take an example of finding your nearest tube/subway station. Looking at the AR view isn’t going to help you navigate your way to the station, but navigation isn’t the point. The AR view is useful in helping you get your bearing and to begin walking in the right direction, while the map view is useful for the finer points of navigating.

AR browsers are fantastic for getting data about your surroundings. Pointing the camera at a landmark and seeing the information bubble near the landmark helps visualize that the two are linked. In contrast looking at a map in an unfamiliar area that has several POIs takes some checking to get orientated.

Hate it
Accuracy fails in two ways, physical errors with the recorded locations of POIs (I have written on the subject many times), and general GPS accuracy. In the perfect world when I point my phone at a POI the information bubble should be on or around the object, in reality it never really matches up to the marketing screenshots and is often several degrees away from the target. Of course it should be said this is the nature of GPS and not the application.

The biggest hurdle to over come with mobile AR is as Paul mentions, holding the phone weirdly, I can understand that. Personally I don’t like waving around my iPhone and advertising it to potential opportunist thieves and I’m highly unlikely to take out my phone and wave it around while looking for somewhere to eat.

The camera view argument
A lot of people will argue that the camera view serves no purpose. If you put your finger over the lenses the application doesn’t notice and carries on plotting the POIs regardless.  Very true, but the usefulness depends on the data you are viewing and how you want to use it. Viewing a POI in the camera such as a tourist attraction or a house for sale and then being able to click on the information bubble for more information is a clear benefit. Waving my device around to view people who are tweeting around me is not so useful.

3D augmented reality also suffers from the Marmite problem. I like Junaio which has many rich 3D images and a social networking engine to share content, and I like the Layar, layer to take a virtual Beatles tour of London as its engaging, but I have evolved beyond the need to take a photo of a crudely drawn object outside my office window.

I see both sides of the Marmite argument and will probably never be able to convince someone to change their point of view. But what I like about mobile augmented reality is the variety of different POIs that are available. I’ll agree that not all of them are useful, and not all of them make sense in the camera window, but they are all fun to try.

What about you, love mobile AR or hate it?

Related posts:

1. Mixare Video Explains Mobile Compass Accuracy Issues
2. The Mobile Augmented Reality Competitive Landscape
3. Build Mobile Augmented Reality Applications In 1 Hour

Never as accurate as this

I sent my brother-in-law who is a London Taxi driver out with Layar and Wikitude and asked him to use them both for a day. While he loved them, after a bit he constantly complained that the applications were reporting incorrect locations, and the locations would jump around, sometimes being in front of him, and other times were appearing behind him.

Of course the problem is not with the augmented reality applications which take advantage of the phones in-built compass, but rather with the phones compass itself.

It may come as a surprise too many of you that the accuracy of the compass differs between models of devices, the accuracy is also affected by objects that are placed next to the device, even whether or not the keyboard is open. (I didn’t know about that one). You try explaining to a user that their £300 phone is not accurate and it’s not the software.

3 different readings, so which is it?

Fortunately after failing to convince my brother-in-law where the problem lies, Daniele at Peer Internet Solutions has put together a great video showing the problem and the differences across several device. It’s interesting if you are building augmented reality applications and wondering why you are not getting the accuracy you were expecting, or if you’re trying to convince a stubborn brother-in–law that going camping and taking nothing but a pen knife and an iPhone for navigation is not a good idea.

Peer Internet Solutions have an open source augmented reality engine called Mixare, which is available for the Google Android and soon for the iPhone. Take a look at their website for more info and check out their compass accuracy report below.

Related posts:

1. Mobile Augmented Reality – The Marmite Problem
2. AR Browsers Head To Head – Test 2
3. Wikitude 4 For The Android With Video

Cheers to Borys Skraba from Trendmaker for giving me a heads up on his new augmented reality marker based game to celebrate Easter.

It’s is nice simple game where you balance the egg for as long as possible by holding the marker in front of your webcam and prevent the egg from rolling off the board for the required time.

The UI for the game is in Polish but it’s very self explanatory.

Give it a go here.

Print the marker from here: www.trendmaker.pl/piktogram.pdf
(Interesting choice of marker, a sheep for an Easter game?)

Then visit here to play: wielkanoc.trendmaker.pl/release/

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQrgau2sXnU

Related posts:

1. August Bunnies – A Belated Easter Post
2. AR Hockey – 3D Shootout Game
3. Try The AR CannonBallz Game

Recently Lester wrote an article about all of the augmented reality browsers available, not be be outdone, when I received the scoop on a new browser being launched on Android, (my platform of choice), I had to beat him to it!

Without further ado, I would like to present: mixare (mix Augmented Reality Engine). mixare is by an Italian based firm called: Peer Internet Solutions.

From their own site:

mixare (mix Augmented Reality Engine) is a free open source augmented reality browser, which is published under the GPLv3. At the moment mixare is available for the Android platform. It works as a completely autonomous application and is available as well for the development of own implementations.

mixare will be the first open source augmented reality browser on Android, and we think on any mobile platform. All others; Wikitude, Layer etc… allow users to create additional layers, but do not actually open up their code.

Using mixare

Because mixare opens up all of their code, it may be applied in many different ways; from using it as a standalone application and utilising its own POIs, to embedding it as an engine in your own application (under GPLv3), an literally everything in between!

We certainly look forward to hearing about mixare’s plans for the future and to see whether they will be supporting any other platforms in the future. In the meanwhile, you can find full details and downloads on mixare’s website.

Related posts:

1. DroidAR Engine For Android Developers
2. Mixare Video Explains Mobile Compass Accuracy Issues
3. ARTags for Android

Junaio is no longer just an augmented reality 3D photo/social networking tool, thanks to new functionality Junaio is now an augmented reality browser similar to the likes of Wikitude, Layar, or WhereMark. With the new channels feature you can browsers for nearby services like Shopping, Games, Nightlife, nearby tweets etc. Live view, the augmented reality view of the world now gives you a wikipedia view so you’ll be able to see where the nearest tube station is located as well as any pictures that have been uploaded by other users.  In Junaio 2.0 everything revolves around the notion of channels, as a user you get your own channel that you can share with friends, or you can subscribe to their channels and  overlay and view their content.

It’s such a big step forward that I was surprised that Metaio didn’t make more fuss about the release. Normally Metaio release a cool video and send over a copy of the press announcement, but I was unable to find anything.  The website doesn’t reflect the new branding or reference the 2.0 release and the general lack of fanfare makes me feel like 2.0 escaped in to the appstore rather than being released, I raised an eyebrow for sure when I first loaded it and saw Junaio 2.0 Alpha on the splash screen.  I searched through the twittersphere and found nothing other than a few users complaining about the new UI, which I have to say I like. The concept of channels is a little confusing at first but it doesn’t take long to figure it out and everything is easily accessible from the home screen.

I’m not sure about backwards compatibility as the pictures I added with the first version seem to have disappeared, but I am using a new account and think they might be in a channel somewhere. Incidentally you can now work with pictures in your phones gallery rather than having to take new pictures. Great if you have the perfect picture and are feeling creative.

On the home screen there is now an option to take pictures of augmented reality markers, in the screenshot you’ll see an AR marker with the trademark Junaio dragon flying above it. We’ll just have to see what that feature is for once we get a bit more news.

Like all good applications, Junaio have an open SDK for developers who want to build content and extend the platform. If you are looking to build content then take a look here:

Android users relax, Junaio is comming soon
iPhone users download from here:

Related posts:

1. Augmented Reality Property Search With Junaio
2. junaio and Augmented Reality Revolutionize Print Advertising
3. junaio 3.0: The next step in mobile AR

Firstly, the good news, it is the update with the 3D functionality rather than just a bug fix. There are some nice new 3D layers. Screenshots 3D is a fun layer where you can include a 3D image into a picture, if you have used Junaio then the idea is very similar. The problem is however is you can’t place the 3D object where you want it so you’ll have to arrange your subject around what Layar dictates. You’ll get four instances of the 3D image appear (north, south, east and west) in your compass and it’s up to you to position the subject to those points. I tried to take a picture of  the Sphinx in my garden but the best I could get was the Sphinx hovering 20 feet above a car park. When you do have your subject lined up the next problem is tying to figure out how you take the picture, so far the only way I have found is to take a screenshot which means you’ll get the Layar UI obscuring your picture, probably not what you wanted.

On several tests with the Catch Of The Day layer all the fish appeared clumped together (see screenshot) rather than in separate locations. I also had giant fish appear that were so huge only part of them appeared on the screen.  I’m pretty sure neither of these things were meant to happen.

Leading on to the UI, it’s very inconsistent. There is a 2 degrees icon which sometimes when pressed appears to tilt the screen by a few degrees, other times it doesn’t really do anything.  I can’t really get my head around that feature. There is also (I’m assuming) a hide POI icon which sometimes causes the POIs drop off the screen and hide and other time just drop a few degrees but stay on the screen. I think the idea is to show distance and scale but the idea doesn’t quite work.

I didn’t test all the layers but, Pubs Galore found my local pub which was good, but the UK Post Box Finder which I thought would be useful failed to find anything despite the fact that I can see a post box from my window. I have said before that Layar are doing a great job getting developers to build layers, some of them however will leave you scratching your head as to why. Take Urban Farm for example, load it and you’ll see icons of animals which do not represent the locations of where they can been seen, selecting the icon give you useful information like ‘Cow’, ‘Turkey’ or ‘Chicken’. Layers like that make me question the quality of the other layers, I think when time permits I will look though the list to see what the quality is like for all 370 layers. On the subject of useful, the Tube Stations layer has been extended to show you the live departure board which is really cool. The integration with the live departure board could have been better than just taking you to TFL’s website, but any ray of sunshine will do.

I was surprised that since the previous Layar was pulled from the appstore due to crashes, I suffered 4 random crashes when testing the application this morning, nothing reproducible just click an icon and boom, app gone. Sadly I still have to complain about the fact that Layar still haven’t caught on to the fact that not everyone in uses KMs.

Having written this I feel like I am too negative, perhaps I got out of bed the wrong side this morning, but Layar and Wikitude are like the Microsoft and Apple of the augmented reality browser world and as such everything they do you expect to be ground breaking. I had such high hopes for Layar 3 but I don’t feel that it’s a step forward from the previous version. The 3D functionality is still buggy and the UI confusing.

Download Layar from here:

It will be it be interesting to hear what you guys think. Love it or hate it?

Related posts:

1. Layar For The iPhone Is Here
2. Layar The First Augmented Reality AppStore
3. Layar & Wikitude come to the iPhone

At Mobile World Congress yesterday, Layar announced that from mid March developers will have the option to produce either free or paid layers. These layers will be will be distributed via the Layar application so developers will be able to take advantage of Layar’s existing user base (around 1 million users) rather than having to market a new application to new users.

Make money building layers

Consider you want to build a World Cup augmented reality application and charge $.99 for it, do you :

A) – hire a developer, spend a few months building something, go through the Apple approval process, then spend months trying to market you application
b) -  develop it as a Layer, have access to all of Layar’s customers

Unless you are looking for a complete bespoke solution I think most people will be in B-land. As a side effect, allowing developers to make money from their work should bring about a whole new generation of quality content as users will demand more than find me a bar type apps.

It’s an ambitious project, having personal experience of putting together an application store, dealing with tax issue, customer complaints, refunds and payments it is a messy business.

Related posts:

1. Layar 3 Back To The iPhone – worth the wait?
2. Layar For The iPhone Is Here
3. Layar Now In 3D

For today’s ultimate guide we’ll focus on augmented reality browsers. The holder of the best augmented reality browser for 2009 is of course Wikitude which was voted no.1 in the Augmented Planet Readers Choice Awards, so who should we be looking out for in 2010?

WhereMark
WhereMark is a relatively new arrival but has already caught the eye.
Plus points, great UI, innovative pinch and stretch zoom, search across multiple categories. Negative points, difficult to see what category is selected, switches between portrait and landscape.

Verdict well worth installing

WhereMark iPhone Augmented Reality Browser

Yell Labs

Another new entry, visually looks fantastic. I really love the lock-on effect where the targeting targeting reticle locks on to a POI. The search criteria is also presented nicely and it’s easy to perform a one click search.

Yell AR (UK ONLY)

While it looks great it is not without problems. The initial search range is set ridiculously low and it took an accident before I figured out that there is a hidden menu on the right hand side of the screen that controls range.

Data accuracy, I know I moan about a lot about this, but pressing the Indian restaurants button reveals 10 matches. 6 of which are Chinese restaurants, 1 is a grill, 2 are Indian restaurants, and one KFC. If you are going to go to the effort of having dedicated search buttons the least you could do is ensure that the data is going to be correct.

While Yell looks good, as you use it you’ll see that the application feels empty. There is no map for example so navigation is difficult and once you have your POI selected very little information is given, in my tests nothing more than the ability to place a phone call was shown.

Verdict, disappointing from Yell you would expect better accuracy, but worth installing and showing your friends the cool lock-on feature.

Zagat To Go
This is another visually stunning app, the ability to scroll A La Street View through the results is pretty cool. Zagat also has a review system so you’ll know if the restaurant you are visiting is any good.  It’s difficult to find a downside to this app other than the price ($9.99), but 89 reviews out of 107 give the application 4 stars or above so they must be doing something right.

Verdict, cool app if you are looking for a high quality application to find places to eat and you are not on a budget then well worth getting.

Zagat To Go

ARgo
Another new browser launched in early February. Search is performed by dedicated buttons which orientate themselves to either portrait or landscape depending on how you hold your device. Searching for Indian restaurants returns a good set of results, all of which actually look like they are Indian restaurants (no KFCs).  As you can search POIs from different categories the compass has a nice touch where each POI is identified by a different colour.

The downside, the POIs in the camera window were pretty difficult to select. POIs were often place on top of each other making it impossible to select those that were further way. There is also no map so no navigation.

Verdict, not really tested in anger. Needs work on selecting POIs

Acrossair multifunctional browser

Acrossair
The Acrossair browser feels like it’s a collection of different AR applications rather than a single app. You can find the nearest tweets, wiki’s, search for restaurants or if you’re in a social the mood you can share your location with your buddies via facebook, twitter, or email. There is even an option to find where you left your car.

There is a good collection of functionality here but it feels like a bit of a jumble. With applications, presentation is often everything. If a user doesn’t like the look and feel they wont come back no matter how good the app is. Here the developers have gone for just putting everything into a list and it feels like it has just be thrown together, it really doesn’t do it any justice.

Verdict, worth installing just for the car locator application

Other world browsers.

• Robotvision
• Bionic Eye
• Nearest Places
• Worksnug

Augmented Reality Browsers

And The Rest

In Rouli’s (ARTimes.net) predictions for 2010 I predicted that everyone would have augmented reality browser functionality by the end of the year, so expect this list to grow. In the meantime if you are looking for even more browsers, try these.

• iNeedCoffee
• A Cafe View
• BUL
• Spot Crime – see where crimes are taking place around you. (US only I believe)
• Stella Artois
• Urban spoon
• Nearest Wiki
• Cyclopedia
• buUuk
• Nearby Navigator
• Ristoranti d’Italia del Gambero Rosso
• Wiki(Ar)
• Taiwan Food AR
• Compass Camera
• A Nearby View
• Huckleberry
• Beijing Discovery AR

Random browsers, find bars, find crime. It's all good

Related posts:

1. Ultimate Guide To iPhone Augmented Reality Part I
2. Ultimate Guide To iPhone Augmented Reality Part II
3. Augmented Reality Browsers Head To Head Part 1

IVR:    “Welcome to your local cinema please speak the name of the movie you would like to see”
YOU:   “Avatar”
IVR:    “You said Valentines Day, is that correct?”
YOU:   “no I said Avatar”
IVR:    “Thank you what time would you like to see Valentines Day”
YOU:   “I don’t want to see Valentines Day I want to watch Avatar”
IVR:    “You said 5am is that correct”

and it goes on.

During my speech technology years I learned that when you move away from the visual it’s actually very difficult to build a UI that present the user with lots of information. Try this, look at your desk and imagine you want to allow a user to choose anything they see laying around. You are probably thinking easy I’d put everything in to a list and let the user select what they want. Good answer, but what happens if the user is in another room and they can’t see your list? Now you have the challenge of having to tell them each item that is on the desk, since you have no idea what they are likely to need you don’t really know which items to list first. With an IVR you have the added complications of having only 10 keys so if you have a lot of items laying around then you’ll need to split them up in to pages. Press * for more options. Coupled with trying to present all the information at a reasonable speed with out boring the user and having them screaming in to the phone you can see some of the complications.

Why is this relevant to augmented reality? Augmented reality developers have to address similar problems but instead of working with the challenge of no visual UI they have a problem of visual overload and face issues such as:

How do you present a large amount of data to users in a visually compelling way.

• How do you show data that may be located in almost the same geographic location and decide which object should be in front.
• How can you make it easy for users to navigate the results without obscuring objects in the background
• How do you provide some way to indicate distance so users get some indication of scale

It’s an interesting problem that as users we don’t think twice about

Here is a typical search (Wikitude) which shows the closest items first and those further behind.

Wikitude World Browser

Notice that they are all plotted on the same plane making it difficult to get access to some of the background items, which could of course be the result you are after. We do get the impression of depth because the distant objects are represented by smaller icons.

Worksnug/Acrossair hit upon the idea of stacking results. Those results that are nearest to your location are shown at the bottom and as you move your way up the list they get further way.

Acrossair stacking results

As more browsers are released and browsers go through new releases it’s interesting to see how developers are approaching the issue of distance and presenting data. For that I am going to draw attention to 3 browsers that have notable innovation worthy of being called ‘best practices’ for augmented reality browsers of the future.

Yell
Yell recently released their AR browser, it’s very Wikitude like in that all items are plotted on the same plane so it does suffer from POIs being hidden when there is a large group of results in the same area. Yell have attempted to solve this with their automatic lock-on functionality. As you move the phone around the targeting reticle will lock onto a POI saving you trying to hold the phone still and tap a partially obscured result. A pretty neat innovation.

Yell with automatic target lock-on

Wheremark
Wheremark are worthy of an innovation mention for their feature which allows you to pinch the screen to change the range. Instead of having to select distance through a menu or via a slider you can re-size the distance in the same way you re-size a webpage. Search results are stacked and the further away the POI is from your current location the smaller it will appear.

Wheremark stacking with pinch distance control

Zagat To Go
Zagat To Go a new browser from Handmark has probably one of most innovative approaches to navigation so far which I am sure is going to become the best practice for future designs. Rather than stacking POIs, instead POIs in the distance are present but their opacity is high so they appear almost as fuzzy images. Like Google Street View you can flick to step forward into the background bring those objects closer, its a really neat effect.

Zagat To Go

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkJfCvN7FUw

I’m interested in what other features you have seen that you think would make it in to an augmented reality browser best practice or innovation guide.

Related posts:

1. Ultimate Guide To iPhone Augmented Reality – Part III Browsers
2. AR Browsers Head To Head – Test 2
3. Augmented Reality Browsers Head To Head Part 1

Having had a chance to test the released version I have to say they have done a pretty good job and lived up to my expectations.

The application is a landscape app, as soon as it loads you are presented with a very simple UI with the compass in the bottom right and an options icon in the bottom left. Clicking the options icon brings up a snazzy interface that controls the search criteria without removing the camera view. At first I struggled with trying to switch to the map view, trying the usual mix of laying the iPhone flat and waiting for the view to change but it didn’t take too long to figure out that to switch you just click the compass icon.

In the options menu you wont find any options to control the search range, instead you’ll use the screens multi touch to drag the range to the required distance. This has the cool effect of making the results icons in the camera view get larger or smaller which gives you a sense of scale. As you use the application regularly you’ll no doubt build up a list of favorites, your home, local bar, friends house etc. At the touch of a button these can be saved as favorites (called WhereMarks) and called up for future use.

Like Wikitude you can search across multiple sources at any one time and the search results are easily identified so you’ll know which POI has found the result. Searches include: bars, restaurants, tubes (subways) stations, train stations, bus terminals, attractions, Wikipedia and a free text web search.

The data accuracy is generally good, when using the restaurants POI it passed my benchmark of finding my local Indian restaurant (though it missed the Chinese opposite) , it did however fail to find most of my local bars using the bars POI and interestingly my local Indian restaurant showed up in the bars results. These faults can’t be attributed to the application, if you have read any of my previous head to head challenges you’ll know that all the augmented reality browsers use different data sources and often give up strange results.

As with all first versions there are a couple of niggly bits, generally the app is polished and I feel I am going out my way to be picky but here goes. Firstly, I complained about Wikitude and Layar only showing kilometers so its only fair to point out that WhereMark only uses miles. Great for the US and UK but annoying for the rest of Europe. Also in the picky department, while the augmented reality part of the application is in landscape, it does switch to portrait when you view the map or click a search result for more information so you’ll constantly be rotating your phone. Finally the search icons are difficult to see whether they are active or inactive, I found myself turning them on and off repeatedly. On a bright sunny day outside it would be impossible to tell so it would be worth introducing some color to highlight when they are active.

Augmented reality browsers come and go, some show promise and then disappear into obscurity never to be updated again. I really hope that the WhereMark guys don’t become one of these and keep up the development. I am impressed so far and it’s definitely an app that will stay on my phone and be included in future augmented reality browser head to head challenges. WhereMark isn’t a Layar or Wikitude killer just yet but it does feel like it could become a worthy rival.

WhereMark is free and can be installed from the Apple AppStore.

Watch the preview video

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MfQ8xehME

Related posts:

1. WhereMark For The iPhone
2. The New Yell AR Browser
3. Junaio 2.0 Now An Augmented Reality Browser

Since then I have done several head to head challenges taking both Wikitude and Layar for test drives in London to find either restaurants or famous landmarks and Wikitude always comes out on or around the top. Indeed in the recent Augmented Planet Readers Choice Awards Wikitude was voted browser of the year by you guys so they have been doing something right.

While I have a soft spot for Wikitude, one of its weakness was the fact that you could only search on Wikipedia, Qype or their Wikitude.me service. Wikitude.me is a service where you can add your own points of interest via the website and have your content appear in the camera view for all users. Layar on the other hand have an open API where developers can build their own POIs and as such have over 300 layers available making it much richer. For example you can use Layar to search for nearby twitter users.

Wikitude 4 has hit the Android and has numerous improvements. Firstly Wikitude 4 supports miles as well as kilometers so no more wondering if 7.5km is to far to walk. I’m really happy about this change and I’m glad my nagging has paid off. Wikitude 4 also boasts many new features and a UI refresh which looks really cool, they have obviously put a lot of effort into the update and it shows. Version 4 supports ‘overlays’ which are POIs either produced by Mobilizy themselves or by 3rd party’s (think Layers if you’re a Layar user). Yes developers and content providers are now able to create content to be included which is no doubt going to see an explosion of the number of search categories available in the future. Everything from the nearest cinema, and what’s showing to the location of where to buy the latest gadgets.

The current list of ‘overlays’ include: Youtube, Google Local Search, Twitter, Booking.com or Panoramio

Unlike Layar (the current version at least) which allows you to search only on one layer at a time, the Wikitude developers have kept with the approach of allowing users to search over multiple sources. In previous head to heads challenges I have run you will have seen that just because a famous POI shows up in one datasource there is no guarantee that it will show up in another. With Layar it’s a constant juggle between the various layers to ensure that you capture everything. Wikitude still allows you to search across all relevant sources so there is less chance of you missing a result. This leads on to another nice improvement over the previous version. In version 3 all your search results had the same icon in the camera view so you couldn’t tell whether that result was from Wikipedia, Qype or wherever. Version 4 address this by giving each overlay its own icon so you’ll know exactly which datasource has found the result. Potentially this could be a problem with having too many search results shown in the camera view making it impossible to read, but the Wikitude developers are ahead of the game and have included an option to limit the number of results which will help reduce the clutter.

As I said at the start, I opted to buy an iPhone and version 4 of Wikitude is currently only available for the Android so I’ll have to wait until version 4 hits the AppStore, but if it looks anything like the Android version I’m sure it will be a huge success. In the meantime take a look at the video below that has more details on some of the new Wikitude 4 augmented reality browser features.

Wikitude 4 first look

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxly9PUCSvA

Related posts:

1. Wikitude 6.0 iPhone Release
2. Wikitude For The iPhone – First Look
3. Visualize Earthquakes with Wikitude

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

Related posts:

1. Explore Audio Augmented Reality With Toozla
2. Toozla for bada Devices
3. Toozla beta for Android owners

Until today, Symbian users have had very little to shout about, the only augmented reality browser I can think of has been ARound by Sequence Point Software. All other augmented reality browsers have been targeted towards the iPhone and Android, but the good news is if you are a Nokia 97 owner you can now download Wikitude from OVI.

Augment your world with the WIKITUDE World Browser, the acclaimed Android and iPhone application is now available on Symbian! See the world through your phone’s camera view overlaid with Wikipedia content, Qype reviews and user-generated content from Wikitude.me (www.wikitude.me). The WIKITUDE World Browser presents the user with data about their surroundings, nearby landmarks, and other points of interest by overlaying information on the phone’s screen.

Welcome abord Nokian’s, you can download from here:

2009 Readers Choice Awards
The readers choice awards ended on Friday and the lucky winner of the Chumby is Freek Bodemeijer. Freek check your inbox as you should have an email from me.

The next question is what are the top applications as voted by you in 2009? We’ll have an announcement about that shortly.

Related posts:

1. Wikitude and the augmented reality hype cycle
2. Attention developers building mobile applications for Android, iPhone, bada and Symbian.
3. Wikitude 4 For The Android With Video

Layar 3.0 was released yesterday to the Android Marketplace. I don’t have a Google Android device so my blog is based on the information I have pieced together rather than a physical test. The good news however is Augmented Planet is expanding and we’ll soon be joined by a former colleague of mine, Nitin Samani who is going to be our Android correspondent.

The big change with 3.0 is the 3D engine. Developers can now build rich 3D content to make your augmented reality viewing even better. Lets’ imagine you are on holiday in London and you are a Beatles fan. If you already use an augmented reality browser, chances are there is a tourist attraction database where you’d be able to find out find where The Beatles played. As you walk around London you could use your augmented reality browser to find Beatles related POI’s and you’ll get useful information like directions and a link to a website where you can read more, or using Layar 3.0 you could take The Beatles Tour.

The Beatles Tour developed by a London based company and fellow augmented reality blogger is one of the most exciting launch layers available. Start the tour, and you are guided to the first location where you have a unique picture opportunity with Ringo, Paul, John and George on the famous zebra crossing in Abbey Road. As soon as you’re done, the tour guide directs you to the next location and photo opportunity. All in all the tour has 42 locations for you to visit.

Tours sound like a great way to engage users, thinking out loud you could create a tour and generate revenue by having restaurants sign up to be part of the tour. If you were taking The Jack The Ripper Tour, after 28 stops you could be directed to stop off for a bite to eat. How much would a restaurant pay to be included?

At the moment there are 6 layer’s available (list here) but there are lots more planned.  I’m looking forward to the iPhone version so I can run a proper test.

Layar v3.0 can now be downloaded free of charge from the Android Market and is available for all Android 1.5 and 1.6 devices. Layar will release a compatible version for the Droid as soon as possible. Layar have almost finished testing for Android 2.0, and good news for iPhone owners, a version for the iPhone 3GS is to follow as soon as Apples approves

Related posts:

1. Layar Vision Webinar and Win $$$
2. Layar, The World’s First Augmented Reality Browser
3. Layar The First Augmented Reality AppStore

WorkSnug in case you don’t know is an augmented realty application that helps you find a place to remote work in London. WorkSnug goes beyond just pointing you to the nearest coffee shop that has free wireless access as the team have actually visited many of the locations and rated them for noise levels (no one wants to work in a really noise environment) as well as useful information like the availability of plug sockets so you’ll never be without power. You can switch the search between all locations or only those that have been reviewed so you’ll have lots of locations to choose from.

If you have used any of the Acrossair products before then this looks very similar and it looks like it uses the same augmented reality engine, you hold the phone up in front of you and you’re in augmented reality mode, put the phone flat and you switch to the map view. If you read this blog often you’ll know my main bitch is when we don’t get the option to choose the unit of distance and get forced to work with something alien. I’m please to say that WorkSnug can switch seamlessly between miles and kilometers. No more trying to figure out if 1.87km is walking distance. Another neat feature is you can limit the number of results displayed so the UI doesn’t’ become too cluttered. (see the  last picture below).

My early tests shows it works pretty well but I did find a couple of little problems. When you load the application and change the scan range to see just what is within a nearby distance it doesn’t actually affect the search results. What I mean is if say only show me nearby places within a 2 mile range, when I switch to the augmented reality view the application still shows me places that are 5 or 6 miles away. I have to close the app and reopen it before my search range is picked up.  The map view is sometimes a bit suspect, putting the phone flat gives a white screen and no matter how long you leave it no map is drawn. When it does this all the entries disappear from the augmented reality view as well even though there should still be some in range.

While the app has lots of potential it’s a bit disappointing that these bugs are still present, I have only had the product for 10 minutes and found them so the QA tester needs a bit of a kick on that one.

Summary
The best thing about the app is the work the guys have put in to reviewing the locations and the work they have done in presenting the infomation to the user. That kind of data is invaluable and since they have the option to switch between miles/km we can assume they will role out the application to others parts of the world in the future.

I’m not completely sold on the augmented realty aspect though as it doesn’t really add any value to the application. Yep sure you can hold the camera up and see the locations but it is much easier to get a flavor of location in the map view. However all that said it’s free so if you live in London it’s still worth your time taking a look and worth and installing.

Feel free to agree/disagree.

WorkSnug video

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z_Q3yl4NjM

Related posts:

1. Ultimate Guide To iPhone Augmented Reality – Part III Browsers
2. iPhone 4 Gyroscope vrs iPhone 3 Accelerometers
3. AR Browsers Head To Head – Test 2

Yell.com a UK Yellow Pages company look like becoming the next big brand to release an augmented reality browser. No doubt having data for probably every business in the UK Yells browser will provide us with rich local search , but from looking at the concept video it looks like it will go a step further than simply telling you a good place to eat. Listening to the voice in the video the user is able to find out about special offers offered by local restaurants. Perfect for those beer nights out that result in the inevitable curry.

Yell.com – augmented reality browser

www.youtube.com/watch?v=scEuaM44JJw

Related posts:

1. The New Yell AR Browser
2. WhereMark Augmented Reality Browser
3. Where To. The Next Browser

The scenario is you are travelling and you see something of interest, can an augmented reality browser tell you what it is?

About the test
The test took place in London along the River Thames. I tested 3 augmented reality applications:

• Wikitude’s Qype and Wikipedia search
• Layar’s Wikipedia and the Unlike Global Guide layer from Unlike Media Limited
• Robotvision’s default Wikipedia search

With each test I switched to the relevant map mode to double check my results.

The test begins at London bridge, looking along the river I can see HMS Belfast (an ex-Royal Navy Town-class cruiser) and just behind it Tower Bridge.

Layar gets off to a bad start as neither of the layers find any of the two reference landmarks, switching to the map view confirms that neither of the landmarks are found. Using the Wikitude Wikipedia search we draw a blank on both the landmarks, but the Wikitude Qype search does find HMS Belfast. Robotvision uses the Wikipedia database and it fails to find any of the landmarks.

HMS Belfast is a well known London landmark visited by thousands of tourists each year and Tower Bridge is a symbol of London so I was really surprised that it wasn’t found. The browsers had no problem with the other bridges along the Thames even the insignificant ones.

From left to right, Layar, Robotvision, Wikitude, Layar mapview

As I worked my way down the Thames I came across the London Dungeons so thought I would stop and do a quick test. Both the Layar layers along with the Wikitude Wikipedia search found the dungeon. But both Wikitude Qype and Robotvision missed the landmark.

Left to right, the Layar (Wikitude) Layar (Unlike) Wikitude, Robotvision

Not far past the dungeons is the Golden Hinde, a ship captained by Sir Frances Drake. It wasn’t going to be part of my test but since I was standing in front of it, just like a tourist I thought I would take the chance to find out more. The problem here is there is not a lot of space so you are literally on top of the ship. GPS is accurate to something like 50 meters so being so close to the subject actually didn’t help. My initial tests showed that none of the browsers found the Golden Hinde but to be sure I switched to map mode and looked at the POIs on the map.

Once in map mode only Layar and the Wikipedia layer found the object. In the photo you’ll see that the accuracy Layar is reporting is 1.5km (about a mile to the rest of us), so the marker appears on the extreme left, almost with the ship out of view. I put this down to the fact that it’s a really closed in area with lots of buildings.

Left to right. Wikitude, Layar (Unlike). Layar (Wikipedia) look how far to the right we had to move the camera

There are several other tourist attractions here, Southwark Cathedral (the oldest cathedral in London) and Clink Prison which dates back to the 12th century. Only Robotvision and Layar (Wikipedia) found these landmarks.

A short walk from the Golden Hinde you can see St Paul’s Cathedral on the other side of the Thames. Layar and both the Wikipedia and Unlike layers failed to find the cathedral (confirmed via the map view) as did Wikitude (Wikipedia) but Wikitude Qype and Robotvision had no problem finding the landmark.

Robotvision and Wikitude hit the target. Layar and map view no result

The London Eye is probably London best know tourist attraction, so it was a good sign that all the browsers had no problem finding the landmark. What helped here was I was on the other side of the river with a good distance between me and the target so GPS accuracy wasn’t so much of an issue. Actually this was one of the best tests because it really was a case of point the camera and the visual marker would come into view very near the object.

Full house all the browsers find the mark

The last test was the Houses of Parliament. Layar (Wikipedia) had no problem with finding the target as did Robotvision. Wikitude (Wikipedia) failed to find the target, but after refusing to give up with Wikitude (Qype) I did manage to find it. The location is slightly wrong so it didn’t appear when I pointed in the correct location. The only interesting thing Unlike found was Indigo02 and I have no idea what that is.

Robot and Layar, maps show the 2 different locations for the POI

Before we move on to the results here are some of my experiences with the various apps.

Both Layar and Wikitude drove me crazy with having to work in Kilometres, I know I mentioned it before but it is really annoying not to be able to switch into a localised unit of measurement particularly when trying to judge objects over large distances.

Every time you open Wikitude you have to reset the distance or it defaults to a range of 67.69 km for Wikipedia and 11.41 km for Qype. Wikitude also crashed every time I changed the POI database so I would have to restart the app and then reset the distance. That got annoying pretty quickly with all the tests I was doing.

I like the fact that in Wikitude you can select multiple databases, in real life you are probably going to have your defaults selected so will be less likely to fiddle like I did. With Layar you can only use one POI at a time and given the differences between the Unlike and Wikipedia databases you are never really sure if you are missing anything.

Robotvision was kind of a surprise, it used miles which was good but again every time you opened the app the distance reset to 3 miles (I guess the distance is somewhat reasonable).  Robotvision was easy to use as there was no switching between databases, you have the choice of Twitter, Bing, Flickr and Wikipedia. Robotvision is actually a pretty good augmented reality application and deserves far more recognition that it receives. It easily competes with the big boys so well done to the developers.

What’s interesting however is the differences between the Wikipedia searches. For Layar the database that performs the best is the Wikipedia search, for Wikitude it’s the Qype search. I think it’s an interesting difference and deserves further investigation.

The scores then, in this head to head challenge each browser was asked to find 7 well know London landmarks so we’ll award 1 point for each landmark found.

• 1st place Wikitude with 5 points
• 2nd place Layar with 4 points
• 3rd place Robotvision 3 points

Can you use an augmented reality browser to find out information about your surroundings? The answer is yes.

A couple of tips:
Generally it’s a lot easier to have some distance between you and the subject to combat the GPS accuracy. If you are too close you may have to pan around to find the object. Secondly it’s sometimes easier to find the object on the map view first, that way when you switch the camera view it’s selected and saves you searching around.

Related posts:

1. Augmented Reality Browsers Head To Head Part 1
2. Ultimate Guide To iPhone Augmented Reality – Part III Browsers
3. Wikitude For The iPhone – First Look

1. Gamaray doesn’t use OpenGL, the 3D objects are all rendered in software. This means the application will never support the kind of animations or textures found in Layar and Wikitude 3D.
2. Much of the code is not very well thought out and I don’t plan on spending any time explaining it.
3. I don’t plan on supporting an open source project, someone else will need to upload it to a repository and manage the updates.

You can get hold of the source code here: http://groups.google.com/group/gamaray/files
If you want to see Gamaray in action read here: http://www.augmentedplanet.com/2009/08/augmented-tourisum/ 

Best of luck to the Gamaray guys, we wish them well in their next venture.

Related posts:

1. Augmented Tourisum
2. mixare – A New Augmented Reality Engine For Android
3. The New Yell AR Browser