Just For Fun: Augmented Reality Apps

For all you Android and iPhone lovers out there, here are two apps (one for each phone) that use augmented reality.

The first I came across actually introduced me to the idea of augmented reality. Of course I had an idea of what this meant, but I looked it up just to make sure. Here is what webopedia told me:

“Abbreviated as AR, Augmented Reality is a type of virtual reality that aims to duplicate the world’s environment in a computer. An augmented reality system generates a composite view for the user that is the combination of the real scene viewed by the user and a virtual scene generated by the computer that augments the scene with additional information. The virtual scene generated by the computer is designed to enhance the user’s sensory perception of the virtual world they are seeing or interacting with. The goal of Augmented Reality is to create a system in which the user cannot tell the difference between the real world and the virtual augmentation of it. Today Augmented Reality is used in entertainment, military training, engineering design, robotics, manufacturing and other industries.”

The first app is one for iPhone users called “The Leak in Your Home Town.” We all know how terrible the BP oil spill  is, and how it has unfortunately affected animals and workers in the Gulf. Well a few weeks ago an iPhone app came out that uses augmented reality to alter BP’s logo (that thing that looks like a yellow and green sun) to show a burst pip with oil spilling out of it whenever you hold your iPhone over the logo.

Here is what it looks like in action:

While this does raise some controversial issues on copyright infringement (perhaps discussed in another post), but to be honest, I say BP has already done enough PR damage, so if I had an iPhone, I would probably be tempted to try it out.

Another app I found out about today is for Google’s Android. Called Road SMS, this app is designed so that you can walk and text at the same time without having to worry about where you are going. Sounds pretty neat right? The folks over at The Next Web Apps certainly see other uses for this app…ahemm… texting while driving?

Click through for source

I certainly would not recommend using it to drive, but it does seem like a really cool use of augmented reality!

Check the apps out, and if you know of more examples of augmented reality…I know they’re out there…please share them with me!