With more and more phones featuring beefy processors, GPS, HSPA data, and compasses,
augmented reality apps are ready to take off in a big way.
Layar, in particular, is shaping up to be the platform of choice from which to overlay information onto the streets that surround you. This is great for serendipitous discovery of cafes, ATMs, real estate, and even jobs, but at what expense? Recently, we
casually joked about the ability to "hunt down tweeps with cold, calculated precision." Now a Dutch crew from
Beste Product took up the task by giving Layar and its "Famous People Finder" feature a real-world test on the streets of Amsterdam with the help of Samsung's
i7500 Galaxy. The results are unsettling as demonstrated by the celebrities, including Brad Pitt's, reaction to being discovered. Is our near-term future to be filled with people laughing maniacally while pointing their cellphones at each other? The video is in Dutch, but the reaction that unfolds at 2 minutes and 40 seconds is universally human. See it after the break.
[Via
@Dutchcowboy]
posted Sep 11th 2009 7:50AM
Staring or starring?
Condescending or patronising?
I watched the video and it could have been either staring or starring. I just finished a turn as an editor of an academic journal, and I guess I haven't put my red pen away, EmailACar. I still would like to know the author's exact intent (if that's allowed), didn't intend any malice toward the author, and have no desire to diminish his achievements as a very good contributor to my favorite tech blog.
Good day.
@EmailACar, condescension. Definitely condescension.
Staring and starring are very different things. I don't know why you would think BigD is being condescending.
it was really Brad Peet.
The technology can do this, but is it morally right to use it. Of course not. Once we all start growing up and realising this, we can settle down and start behaving like humans again.
Ayup. It's creepy and disrespectful. I just don't get it.
"HAHAH! LOOK AT THE MONKEY IN THE CAGE! Look at it trying to hide from us, that's so cute!"
agreed. I just don't get why people care that much about random other people. Brad Pitt...wow... who cares. It's just people.....people.
Personally, I'm excited that the technology can actually do this. However, developers need to find better uses for it. I'd love to see tourism departments of different cities put together interactive tours, pointing out historical landmarks, points of interest, and then also giving you a coupon code for a great restaunrant that's along your route. http://htcsource.com
This + facebook = much easier for people to stalk others (shudder)
Wow... The phone for creepy celebrity stalkers! How incredibly cool!
Or maybe just downright disrespectful and weird.
I disagree. Brad Pitt makes something like $20 million a year for maybe 100 hours' work. It's the least we can do to hound him to his grave.
And the least Brad could do is buy blinds.
Nice try.. but not Brad Pitt.
I thought the face shape was a bit weird, but how can you be so sure it wasn't him?
Brad Pitt has a large beard now, although that doesn't mean he can't shave. I still agree that this isn't him.
the glasses help make this guy be convincing, but definitely not him.
not him, fake brad pitt.
I wear my sunglasses in the house - just because
How did it find Brad Pitt? Did it just use data from fansites or something? That scares me.
And incidentally, I find hearing Dutch is akin to waking having partially forgotten English.
Twitter comments. Mr. Pitt has a twitter account, and the app he uses posts his position. The AR application will put the people you are following up on a map, if they are allowing position info to be posted. It's a check box in the twitter application that most celebrity should be unchecked, because morons think they have no right to privacy because they are famous.
I'm disappointed, WHO cares about brad pitt they should have stalked Anglina Jolie, Btw why is her name Anglina jolie her DAD called jolie WAT?
@ DR House
She had it legally changed do to differences in opinion.
@ DR House - Jolie is her name, her full name is Angelina Jolie Voight, (Jolie is her Mother's maiden name) she dropped the Voight after her daddy cheated on her mommy and she was not impressed !
What? she dropped her father name just because he cheated on her mom? not like i agree with cheating but i dont think that was the case or 90% of Americans would end up with dropping their father Name lol.
@ barry99705 Thanks for the clarification.
So let me get this straight:
Twitter lets you tell people where you are.
Someone found out where you are.
You're upset now? ::scratches head::
If it was his cell phone provider tracking him and making it public, then that would be scary. But allowing someone to find the location you told them you were... What's all the hubbub about?? (Regardless of whether or not it's actually BP.)
You misunderstand the app: it doesn't show where the person is, but where they own houses. I've lived in that neighborhood in Amsterdam for a couple of years and though I wasn't sure which house, I did know (like most) that he owned property there.
BTW this video seems pretty staged to me. And the "joke" only makes sense because so many locals know that he owns a house in that neighborhood.
Twitter's popularity only proves that people are so bored with their own lives that they feel the need to keep track of other people for some weird,creepy reason. No one gives a shit what you're doing.
On an unrelated note, I wish all phones had OLED screens...
...all Brad did was sign up for that new Loopt/AT&T "service"
Cool functionality - but brings home how quickly it could become a stalker or kidnapper's best friend.
These kinds of apps should be banned -.- thats an intrustion to a person's privacy, look at how Brad Pitt reacted...
Uhh, no. That's not how things should be done. We already have invasion of privacy laws to protect us from these kinds of morons. The software is just a tool, it's the user that's using it for bad purposes.
Sure, the software's just a tool, but those users are just tools, too.
Who is we? this was in the netherlands, samsung no doubt sells this in a hundred other countries, each country (hold your hat if you are american) actually has their OWN LAWS!!!! incredible isn't it?
And have you seen what's allowed in the UK for instance? You can basically torture famous people at will.
I disagree, perhaps they need to come down. maybe we don't need celebs. to be celebs.
Maybe they should become more joe next door and then humanity would place less attention on them and so they would eventually get more peace and remember what it was like to be ungodlike.
I agree, and it looked to me like they were really enjoying how they made Pitt uncomfortable. Seriously not funny...
If it was real in the first place then that was a false impression, he was just being overly excited and incredulous about actually finding brad pitt in amsterdam, saying 'is that him? wow it's him right, look it's brad pitt did you see that' and stuff like that.
Would seem odd though that brad pitt would wear the 'brad pitt' sunglasses in his house, like an impersonator would to look more like him.
That is clearly not Brad Pitt. How can the author be so gullible? Does Engadget have editors? Is this a spoof video site now?
Why am I asking so many questions???
Really, are people such idiots that they'll believe anything if it includes a celebrity name? Damn people, just stop and actually LOOK at the screenshot of "Brad Pitt". It's not him... just some fool with a shaved head and Fight Club sunglasses. Yeah, I'm sure Brad liked that look so much, he's going to spend the next 10 years looking like that... sheesh
It just as well have been a look a like set up purely for this reaction and drive traffic over to them. Just happens to have big dark sunglasses whilst sitting indoors... Jury is out.
Wow... Digital maps of the stars. What's next, a flea market finder? How about an app that finds the closest Stuckeys?
Why would Brad Pitt be wearing sunglasses in his own house? I'm not buying it. That and it doesn't really look like him. If anything, it's a dude that happens to resemble him from many, many years ago (12 Monkeys) and can only really look like him when wearing sunglasses.
Yeah the sunglasses seem unlikely, and I also noticed that he looks 15 years younger, but with such vague footage it would be hard to tell, but maybe brad pitt has an army of clones spread around the world, those rich&famous have access to cutting edge technology and he and jolie seem into \nurturing\ a lot :)
Or maybe it's his secret love child from his old squeeze.
As stated already - Brad Pitt this is not. On the face of it the author seems to have been either duped or is trying to dupe us. Not the usual Engadget quality posting you'd expect.
This site is quickly turning into Gizmodo. Ugh.
Of course it wasnt Brad Pitt. It was Tyler Durden.
Despite not knowing a lick of Dutch, I could mostly understand what he was saying...
And that is a scary feature, Smartphone of stalking +10