Augmented reality is one of the newest trends in smartphone apps, and it’s the most exciting in our book. The Samsung Galaxy S features the superb Layar augmented reality app built-in, but what can it do for you?
AR – the new hotness
Augmented reality mobile apps hook into the world around you, using the phone’s camera to take a view of your surroundings. Some will paste space aliens onto the world around you, to blast into oblivion, but Layar is more constructive than that.
Layar uses the view from your Samsung Galaxy S‘s sensor as a way to find out more about what’s going on in the world. Whether you want to find the nearest cash machine or the closest active Twitter user, Layar can come up with the goods.
More than maps
Layar may sound like nothing more than a dressed-up maps app, but there’s a lot more to this augmented reality fest than that. For starters, there’s the way you interact with the app.
Once you’ve chosen what you’re after, you look through your phone’s screen as if it were a window. Pasted on top of your camera’s view of the world is a grid , representing the ground in front of you. Using the Samsung Galaxy S’s accelerometer and GPS function, Layar works out which way you’re looking.
If there’s a pizza restaurant, public toilet – whatever your search criteria are – in front of you, it’ll appear as an on-screen icon. It’s the context that Layar puts its results in that makes it so compelling. Nearby results are displayed in the top-right of the screen, in a radar read out. It’s like a video game, that’s set in the world, and unlike a game is by no means a waste of time.
More options than you can shake a stick at
What makes Layar such a world addition to the Samsung Galaxy S is that it’s a discovery platform. The menu where you select which locations appear within Layar isn’t presented like a list – it looks more like an app store.
Samsung has added 15 of its own Layar presets to the app, including staples like restaurants, parking and tourist attractions, but Layar lets you go way “out there”. You can search for the filming locations of YouTube videos if you like. It’s not all flippant or simple stuff though. If you’re willing to pay some money, you can buy some robust Layar add-ons, such as the Explore South Africa travel guide and Betrlitz’s selection of UK city guides.
Location aware at all times
With such a range of options on offer, Layar has the potential to become hopelessly intimidating, as you’re faced with reams of options that span the whole world. But that’s why Layar includes a local tab.
This gives you all the lists most pertinent to your current location. We had a browse and found London tube stations, an Irish pub finder and a selection of the best nudist beaches and resorts in the UK. Fruity.
Check out the Samsung Galaxy S in action…
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