Augmented Reality - iPhone, Android apps and beyond

Imagine this. You are on a business trip to Paris. You are new to the city and are taking Metro to your client's office. Thanks to the Jet lag, you are running late and just missed the train. You seem to be in the vicinity of Metro station but do not know the schedule of the next train. You take your iPhone and start punching to get Google Maps show schedule information while navigating the human maze on sidewalk.

Now Imagine this. You take your iPhone, point your iPhone camera at Metro station and give a voice command "Metro Schedule... English". A french sounding female voice gives you the Metro schedule. Knowing that your next train is after 15 minutes, you see a Starbucks logo on the building adjacent to Metro station on your iPhone screen. You head towards Starbucks while the female voice gives walking directions to Metro station from your current location.

Welcome to Augmented Reality. Services like this are becoming popular in smartphones like iPhone and Android. Even though the applications are in early stages, this is going to be a sought-after feature in smartphones. These applications make use of built-in GPS receiver, built-in compass and camera in smartphones to locate your position and orientation to overlay the available information on top of smartphone's camera view. Additionally these applications can provide access to user generated data in real time. Below is a list of iPhone Augmented Reality applications:

• Layar Reality Browser
• Wikitude world browser
• Presselite's Bionic Eye
• Acrossair Nearest Subway App

Pranav Mistry's SixthSense technology, which is a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information promises to take augmented reality to next level.