Over the weekend the New York Times ran an article about a new application available on Android called Goggles. Google's Goggles is one among a number of new and much-hyped "augmented reality" applications available on phones running Android (and to a lesser extent on the iPhone 3GS). These apps allow users to see additional information layered on top of the world around them. In the case of Goggles, users can take pictures of objects like, say, a mountain, and find out how tall it is. The NYT predicts:
It’s not hard to imagine a slew of commercial applications for this technology. You could compare prices of a product online, learn how to operate that old water heater whose manual you have lost or find out about the environmental record of a certain brand of tuna. But Goggles and similar products could also tell the history of a building, help travelers get around in a foreign country or even help blind people navigate their surroundings.
It's also not hard to imagine a slew of development uses for augmented reality. Not too long ago, Giulio was raving about an application called Layar (available on Android and apparently waiting for Apple's approval for the iPhone) that lets users get a street view of where U.S. government bailout funds are being used. One could imagine extending this technology to development funds in the hopes of overcoming some of the confusion generated by the multitude of aid agencies and funding sources.
Right now the World Bank only offers its senior staff the Blackberry. But with the most innovative new uses of augmented reality technologies being offered up on different platforms, perhaps it's time to reconsider this "Blackberry-only" policy? I'll add this one to my Christmas wish list.
(Photo Credit: gg02)
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