Cool app that shows comments when you point a phone at a place?

[ac0x]

Anyone know what the app is that I've seen on AT&T commercials (or is it a Verizon commercial? ) that shows comments about a place in a pop up window when you point your phone at that place?

 

[baseballfanz]

Google goggles?

 

[ac0x]

Re: Cool app that shows comments when you point a phone at a plac

K I saw the commercial again last night (it's an AT&T one) and I just Googled what the commercial said "have your friends write messages to you in the sky". And I found these

33 Awesome Augmented Reality Apps & Games for Android

Augmented reality. Neat stuff. Got to do some more researching about this...

 

[Moscow Desire]

Re: Cool app that shows comments when you point a phone at a plac

There are apps, which you can take a foto of, and it will access the internet and try to match the foto with a relevant point of interest. And in turn, give you some short info. I think My Cameras is one of these apps, although most people can't get it to work. But there are apps that purport to do this. However, they are extremely unreliable, and can only work on the most important sightseeing attractions.

I'm sure this is what the commercial is referring to.

But think about it, since when, has anyone been able to point "any" device, without first having to press a button?

Magic doesn't exist to allow somebody to just wave the mobile around, and amazingly, all sorts of information appears like TV shows us.

 

[ac0x]

Re: Cool app that shows comments when you point a phone at a plac

This claims to do this Augmented Reality Browser: Layar . Not sure how well, I haven't used it yet.

And why is it "magic" to be able to do this? With a combination of GPS position/photo recognition, why couldn't it be done as long as it was able to access the proper data? And as far as us having to "press a button", the app itself would just open the camera,

 

[Moscow Desire]

Re: Cool app that shows comments when you point a phone at a plac

I'll take a longer look at your link tomorrow. I live in a way far different time zone

Basically, the way these apps work, is similar to facial recognizition. The foto gets uploaded, and it uses points of reference to match against a database.

For example, St. Basil's Cathedral near the Kremlin on times square. If you take a full front perfect foto, it will most likely, be able to use reference points, and match it against it's database.

But if you took a foto from a different angle, it's going to have a little difficulty, and as a result, you might get info from a monestary in Sergie Pasat.

As far as "waving the camera around", as the ad depicts........

And as anybody with a mobile knows, you don't move the camera at all, when taking a foto...

 

[ac0x]

Oh I agree apps like this have far to go. You still DO need to at least get a good and front-on image before they'll recognize anything Im sure. I dont think science is even sure how humans can recognize things from a different angle than we saw them before, never mind how to get our smartphones to do it But the basis for the technology is there and will grow. Think of this - ten years ago if I told most people a device you keep in your pocket could recognize anything at all from any image they'd call me crazy. Who knows what the next 10 years will bring...

Sent from my Inspire 4G using Tapatalk

 

[EvilMonkey]

Re: Cool app that shows comments when you point a phone at a plac

Augmented reality has been around for years. I even played a treasure hunt game with it at a conference way back in 2006 (following a stream of bubbles that only appeared on the phone down hallways and whatnot to virtual treasure chests).

Layar has been around awhile and works pretty much like what they show in that commercial (you indeed "wave the phone around" and it shows you what's around you as you move the camera). There are several other ones that function similar. Wikitude is one that's kindof neat, as you can pull up things like Flkir photos or Youtube videos or FourSquare checkins (or even wikipedia entries) around you.

They are neat, but honestly I find them more a conversation piece than something I use every day (Similar to Google Sky Map). It's just easier to use Places or Yelp or something that also list things around you, just not in an augmented reality way.