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."

Coming maybe but definitely not here

[chazchaz101]

The fact that the review ends with "it’s sometimes easier to find the object on the map view first, that way when you switch the camera view it’s selected and saves you searching around." is a clear sign that so called augmented reality really isn't there when it comes to its primary promised benefit of making information about one's location trivially easy to access.

Re:Greed Strikes again!

[DNS-and-BIND]

Great idea. So instead of letting them fight it out by trying to top each other with features, they can spend all of their time squabbling due to different design philosophies and politics.

The technology is immature, of course it's rather worthless in its present state. Of what use is a 3-year-old?

Re:Coming maybe but definitely not here

[Fred_A]

The fact that the review ends with "it’s sometimes easier to find the object on the map view first, that way when you switch the camera view it’s selected and saves you searching around." is a clear sign that so called augmented reality really isn't there when it comes to its primary promised benefit of making information about one's location trivially easy to access.

Or you could just get "Lonely Planet London" (or whatever), save on roaming fees and have all of the data available at the flip of a page without ever worrying about the battery charge or looking like a dork (although your cover might be blown and you might be flagged as a tourist).

Re:Greed Strikes again!

[SeaFox]

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.

Have you considered that "paying" isn't always done with money? It can be done with an exchange of information instead. Kind of like how the internet backbone networks have peering agreements with each other rather than asking each other to pay for the data they transfer by the GB.

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.

Each business would require less resources to keep their information up to date if they weren't all duplicating each other's work on the same geographic area. Or even if they did, the info would be more up to date since multiple groups would be doing occasional verification of the info.

Yeah, this wouldn't benefit businesses at all...

London's easy

[PPH]

A wallet card with "Look RIGHT before crossing" and "Mind the gap" should suffice.