How Augmented Reality Browsers Stack Up For Navigating London

We've mentioned the tantalizing possibilities of augmented reality here several times, including Microsoft's stab (using scene recognition) as an information overlay for cell phones, and some display technologies that could make a Terminator-style information overlay on the real world possible without even looking down at a screen, including both glasses with microdisplays and contact lenses. An anonymous reader points to this two-part review of several cell phone apps, in which the writer has "tested several mobile augmented reality browsers and their ability to find places to eat and function as a tourist guide by identifying tourist attractions in London," writing, "This is the first review I have seen where all the browsers have been compared together; what's interesting is all the browsers use different data sources, and so either miss popular locations or give the wrong location."

Re:Hrmm

[JustOK]

don't forget your towel.

Re:Greed Strikes again!

[DNS-and-BIND]

I've done the same thing myself, a database of venues that was then published. Listings are not easy and keeping them current is a constant struggle. I tell you what, after I did all that work tracking down names, addresses, verifying the info, removing venues that closed, adding new ones, I don't want anyone taking my hard work and applying it to their product. Fuck them, they can pay me. A lot. Would it be nice if everyone cooperated and shared and it was caring time all day long? Sure. Is it going to happen? No.

You're not thinking about what would benefit the businesses. You're thinking about a scenario that would benefit you. Pretty selfish for a guy advocating communalism and cooperation over the survival of the fittest.

Re:Greed Strikes again!

[Marcika]

Imagine how much more complete the picture would be if the children all cooperated and worked together on the database content, developed the communication protocols for that database together, and gave each other free license to use them. Then differentiated themselves from the competition with the interface, hardware (if applicable), price, etc.

As far as I understand, most of these gizmos use the geolocation data from Wikipedia for their services -- so people already cooperate on the content. (And give it to everyone for free, too!) The crappiness of these apps just demonstrate that each of them is bad at parsing the WP database in its own way (compare for instance Google Maps with the Wikipedia layer enabled - it is much better).