Layar takes the sort of GPS POI data in current map-based apps, like ATMs, houses for sale, or nearby hotspots, and displays them overlaid on the landscape as seen through the camera lens.
A magnetometer, used to power Apple's compass app and future turn-by-turn navigation software in the 3G S, would also be necessary (Android phones have compasses already).
technology that displays layers of data on top of our view of physical reality through mobile phone cameras, projected images and webcams.
AR browsers like Layar and Wikitude are like Gopher was in 1991 -- early, geeky, not a lot of content, not a great experience...but watch what happens next.
It confirms to me there are no useful AR apps right now, and also that the feasible apps are very limited, because they all seem kind of similar to one another.
It's just so much easier for me to use an ordinary browser map application and see all the locations of interest for any conceivable query than to mess around with a phone's camera.
you really need a lightweight high-res infinite-battery HMD with meter-accuracy location for it to make much sense to me -- snapping photos through a cellphone and looking at crappy low-res decorations on the result seems very weak to me, especially given the error scale of GPS
there may be some special purpose AR apps in the short term that are useful and effective for narrow uses
Nice video, "mash-up" of "on-line" data made available while on the moove but what is the advantage of AR on a mobile for this type of use versus this information being read on a a simple (google) map on your iphone?