Video: SPRXmobile's Layar is world's first Augmented Reality browser for cellphones

This one's been a long time coming but it looks like Dutch company SPRXmobile has launched the world's first Augmented Reality browser. Layar, as it's called, runs on Android and aggregates the data from the cellphone's compass and GPS coordinates to understand where you're standing and what you're looking at. A "radar view" then applies a visual information layer on top of the camera display as you pan around your environment. Content partnerships including a local bank, social networking site, and a realty company allows Layar to identify houses for sale, nearby ATMs, and local clubs and bars all laid out visually on your cellphone's display. Layar will be available this month in The Netherlands via the Android Market for phones such as the G1 and HTC Magic. It will launch in the US, Germany, and the UK sometime later this year with the iPhone 3G S listed as a primary target platform. Looks great with plenty of data populated in the video sample (posted after the break) but we have to wonder how well it works in day-to-day reality.

Update: As pointed out by a number of readers, calling this a world's first is a bit of stretch considering apps like Wikitude (a travel guide) and NRU. When pressed, SPRXmobile said they are a world's first AR browser platform.

[Neeko @ Jun 17th 2009 9:06AM]

ok so kinda like GEO tagging in a web browser. would be really great for tourist holding the phone up to a street and getting all kinds of info about the area..very nice. huge task to keep updated if its not done by users.

[TT @ Jun 17th 2009 10:23AM]

Most of the information is taken straight from the sites they listed at the end, so not really that much updating is required.

And yeah, hurrah for us Dutchies!

[FuzzyCat @ Jun 18th 2009 4:21AM]

How is this the first? Wikitude does the same thing and I've had it on my G1 for ages...


Did I miss something?

[Maff @ Jun 17th 2009 9:09AM]

looks just like NRU on android but with the camera's image there instead of a black background

[Chasethebase @ Jun 17th 2009 9:12AM]

Is that like a silver/brown G1? Looks alright. Nicer than the black.

[Yevon @ Jun 17th 2009 10:01AM]

It's the bronze color with a silver keyboard. The silver keyboard sucks though - you can't read the keys because they light up white, so there is very little contrast.

Lesson learned: I'm just going to stick with black from now on.

[superhobo @ Jun 17th 2009 9:16AM]

78% rise in d-baggery when it launches for the 3Gs

[Benjamin Fryxell @ Jun 17th 2009 9:23AM]

Whoa, looks like a cool browser! I wonder when theyll be released

[comment_system=Fail @ Jun 17th 2009 9:24AM]

Very cool.

I smell a Google buyout coming in 3... 2... 1...

[TareX @ Jun 17th 2009 9:31AM]

They already bought Enkin... (which was admittedly much better than the app in this article)... so...

[Michael Witt @ Jun 17th 2009 9:59AM]

I find it funny that your avatar is from Eden of the East, and yet you're not mentioning how similar it looks to a certain *cough* eden *cough* system. (although that system is fictitious)

[Aaron @ Jun 17th 2009 9:25AM]

It looks awesome. Now it all needs is interactivity - like in that one new at&t xenon commercial where the girl plays around the buildings and billboards in front of her, then a balloon pops up that says "i'm downstairs," and then she goes downstairs.

[AndrewNoNumbers @ Jun 17th 2009 9:28AM]

Finally something good that's Android exclusive!

[Galactor963 @ Jun 17th 2009 9:30AM]

Looks like only for a short time though:
"It will launch in the US, Germany, and the UK sometime later this year with the iPhone 3G S listed as a primary target platform."

[AndrewNoNumbers @ Jun 17th 2009 9:34AM]

Aw.. I just reread that, it doesn't even say anything about Android phones in the US.

[Dexter. @ Jun 17th 2009 9:29AM]

This is incredible.

IDEO did work on this a while back, but it was a concept for a 'newspaper of the future'... I thoroughly look forward to seeing were development on this goes!

[TareX @ Jun 17th 2009 9:30AM]

Enkin, enkin, where art though?

Some say that Google acquired them, to incorporate it as a "Live Mode" in Google Maps for Android 2.0 (Donut). At least that's what you understand reading their blog...

http://www.enkin.net

[iisjreg @ Jun 17th 2009 9:34AM]

Definitely not the first. See: Wikitude.

[Brad @ Jun 17th 2009 10:38AM]

Yep, I have had Wikitude for a while, it's been doing this since it came out. It's not the most useful app (though I haven't used it on vacation yet, where it could be more useful), but it's very, very cool. As far as I know, Wikitude was the first to do this in a release-version app on the marketplace.

I feel like if Google held a press conference every time something cool happened on the Android platform, ala Apple, people wouldn't overlook some of the cool stuff going on with the platform. Just watch when Apple finally makes the iPhone do multitasking to some degree, they're going to act like they've invented the whole thing... hopefully the Engadgets of the world won't give them a free pass.

[AndrewNoNumbers @ Jun 17th 2009 9:35AM]

I wonder if the data points are all stored in memory or if they are streamed.

[rcappo @ Jun 17th 2009 9:46AM]

I wish they were stored in memory on the device, but I don't think that is possible since there is too much data. My iPod touch wishes that I could download a city and not worry about finding an access point. It would be great for tourism and being able to read reviews of different places.

This will be the future of social networking. All of a sudden all of those strangers you walk past in the mall will have mobile facebook pages so you can see who they are.

Then they will need to come up with a display that can be installed behind some glasses so you aren't holding your phone up to everyone.

[Mark @ Jun 17th 2009 11:03AM]

Well, if your phone had expandable storage, stored data points wouldn't be such a big issue :)

[AndrewNoNumbers @ Jun 17th 2009 11:51AM]

It wouldn't really take that much memory. I think each data point is just a 3D model of the actual thing (for identification) plus a text description, thumbnail, and some links.

[Miles @ Jun 17th 2009 9:47AM]

When can I become Halo?

[AMiSH PiRATE @ Jun 17th 2009 9:50AM]

when you buy some nerf guns and go to the state park with your friends.

[Galactor963 @ Jun 25th 2009 8:32AM]

I think halo is a pretty cool guy.

[JJ @ Jun 17th 2009 9:52AM]

But...Will it let me travel between parallel dimensions???

[LondonConsultant @ Jun 17th 2009 10:08AM]

No, but a few pints of Guinness will let you do that for a lot less.

[Brad @ Jun 17th 2009 10:24AM]

World's First?

Abso-effing-lutely not. It's called wikitude, it's been out for a while, it's also for Android.
http://www.mobilizy.com/wikitude.php

It uses GPS + internal directional sensors and wikipedia to show you what's infront of you.

Sometimes I feel like anything not tagged under "iPhone" was likely to not have been researched.

[Tom @ Jun 17th 2009 11:30AM]

Wikitude is awesome, glad I'm not the only one who realised. Still, another similar product wont do any harm. Competition breeds innovation as they always say.

[Brad @ Jun 17th 2009 1:24PM]

Definitely agreed Tom, the more the merrier - and this app covers some areas that Wikitude doesn't, so thats neat.

It's just a little frustrating to see a great, innovative app like Wikitude get totally overlooked/ignored. "World's First" is an awfully dramatic and strong declaration to make without doing a basic search of 'android augmented reality app', which would reveal Wikitude on the very first page.

[Tom Hands @ Jun 17th 2009 2:17PM]

Yeah, seems especially bad that the company's own marketing video is making that claim when it is clearly untrue. Surely the developers searched the app store before starting development to check out any competition, and would hence know they weren't the first? I agree that wikitude needs some love here.

Funny thing is, I'm sure I heard about Wikitude here first. Maybe it was at Download Squad. Ah well,hopefull wikitude gets the coverage it deserves somewhere.

[Al @ Jun 17th 2009 11:50AM]

this is something like eden of the east system

[toromaga @ Jun 18th 2009 11:24AM]

Was wondering if anyone else here was thinking that.

[shinrajp @ Jun 17th 2009 11:53AM]

So I assume when I point the camera to the houses, they all show foreclosures?

Does iPhone have this app?

[Peter Jan @ Jun 17th 2009 12:51PM]

WTF? The background in the video. That's exactly were I live.

[Mark @ Jun 17th 2009 12:27PM]

aaand now everyone here knows where you live.

[ultimatepwnage @ Jun 17th 2009 12:39PM]

haha pwnd vriend :)

[Peter Jan Haas @ Jun 17th 2009 12:43PM]

Ring my door bell and I'll buy you a beer or put a spliff between your lips...

[Hackettman @ Jun 17th 2009 1:07PM]

My mind was just blown .............

[zosogt87 @ Jun 17th 2009 3:50PM]

would be very helpful in locating the nearest mcdonalds after too much time in one of those amsterdam coffee shops

[Thunderbuck @ Jun 17th 2009 6:28PM]

lol

I see what you did there :-)

[Les Coeurneilles @ Jun 17th 2009 4:44PM]

A local bank?

ING was ranked by Forbes as the 9th largest company in the world.
Can't imagine them having reached that position by offering services solely in Amsterdam.

[Thunderbuck @ Jun 17th 2009 6:30PM]

ING rocks, man. I have one of those "automated withdrawal" savings accounts with them here in Canada. Best interest rate around (for a regular bank account, anyway).

[Octavio @ Jun 17th 2009 6:11PM]

It's only a matter of time before this technology gets adapted for glasses, and eventually everyone (including myself) will be wearing them. Like cell phones, we'll feel naked without 'em. Over the years, they will be made small enough to fit in contact lenses, and eventually they will be embedded directly into the eyes (Terminator, anyone?). The future of data overload has only just begun.

[Quikboy @ Jun 17th 2009 7:10PM]

I still don't get why many developers tend to forget other popular platforms to develop for, such as BlackBerry, WinMo, and Symbian.

[Juan @ Jun 19th 2009 10:09PM]

Cool stuff overall, but isn't it a little silly to show pictures of something that you could actually look at if you look away from the phone?