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Augmented reality android app: Wikitude

by JG Mason on Oct 29, 2008 at 03:09 PM

Wikitude application for t-mobile g1
In what has to be the worst name ever for any app, not just Android, Wikitude by Mobilizy offers something extremely unique: augmented reality.  In addition to being a POI (point of interest) search companion, the tool makes use of all the on-board hardware on the G1: GPS, accelerometer, data connection, camera among others.  In my opinion, this is the coolest thing on the G1 phone.

The remarkable augmented reality is basically like looking through a pair of binoculars that identifies landmarks and provides snippets of information from Wikipedia about them (video below).  Imagine you are traveling through Europe, as you are prone to do, and whip out your G1 and activate Wikitude which tells you the bar you are drinking in was visited by Napoleon.  Instantly, you’ve got your own tour guide.

The software actually identifies buildings, mountains, farm animals (OK, not farm animals), and relays info about those things to you.  It is impressive enough that more than a few G1s will be sold based on this application by itself.

The application currently supports over 350,000 points of interest world wide.  Searching through them, Wikitude provides the answers to your queries as a list, on a map or in the augmented reality view from the camera with the info overlaid.  Very cool stuff.  Check out this video, put out by Mobilizy, the Wikitude developer.

 

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