Augmented Reality Browsers: Scary Cool

If you haven’t seen them yet, you have to check them out…

Remember the Terminator movies? Remember when you could see what the terminator sees and as he looks at things information about them pop up? If you ever thought how cool that would be, then now is your chance to try it out, sorta… oh the possibilities…

A few companies are coming out with Augmented Reality Browsers now, the most popular of which being Layar (look for it in the Android Market and soon to be in the iPhone App Store, 3GS only though since it requires a compass to work properly).
Layar basically uses your GPS and compass to determine where you are and what direction you are facing. Then it allows you to use your video camera’s viewfinder and pops up locational information relative to where you are and where you are facing. For example, if you look at a McDonalds with your Layar program it knows the McDonalds is there and you can click on it for more information. Not only that but you can spin around looking at your viewfinder and see all the McDonalds within range as you spin (Yes, you might look ridiculous spinning in circles, but who really cares?). You can even click on the McDonalds that pop up for their phone number and directions (courtesy of Google Maps). Not too bad right? It’s a nice alternative to old fashion 2 dimensional maps, pssh. Instead of looking at a webpage for information, you can just take out your phone point it at anywhere around you and find out what you need!

So this type of technology is still in its infancy, and is more a platform (Layar is at least) that allows other companies to put their “layers” of information on top of it (so Zagat could make a layer that when activated would show you all the restaurants around you and their ratings, etc.). So we are patiently waiting for more and more companies to join in and add their own unique information layer to make this much more appealing.

But that’s not even what really makes me giddy about this type of technology. Let’s speculate shall we?

Let’s add facial recognition to the mix… now when I point my augmented browser at someone walking by me on the street I can bring up stuff like their Facebook profile. Let’s get scarier and link this to their medical records, their online profiles, or what about the public offenders website (to see if they are a sex offender or a down right nasty person)? Scary, right?

So what do you guys think about this technology?