Wikitude is an augmented reality cell phone application, which works on Google’s G1 phone and will soon work on the Apple I phone 3G. The software is generated by Mobilizy , a software company based in Austria. Wikitude combines the features of the phone – camera, GPS, compass and Internet connection, turning a cell phone into a real-time GPS.
A GPS device is useful, however, often it is difficult to make out where you are in relation to the map. Sometimes, there is a detour that isn’t plotted on the GPS in front of you and you are left scramble and figure out your next step, while the GPS recalibrates. Mobilizy solved this problem with the app call Wikitude Drive. Using the camera on your cell phone, the image of the street in front of you is projected onto the screen of your phone with driving instructions layered over the live picture of the street.
Wikitude populates a map with markers for Wikipedia entries about the area you are in. The Wikipedia information is specifically formatted for this application, making it easy to read without having to scroll around the screen. Clicking a link on an entry will launch that site on the web browser. Wikitude.me is an app that provides a way for anyone to add Points of Interest to a Wikitude area that are then made immediately available to other Wikitude mobile users.
Wikitude has competition breakthing down it’s neck with Layar which also uses an android phone’s GPS, camera, and compass to bring together real-time information about the part of the world you are in. Just point your phone to find areas of-interest, apartments for rent, houses for sale, ATMs, jobs, restaurants and stores. You can get the information about what you need by just pointing your phone in the direction you are going. Layar includes Yelp reviews, tweets from Twitterers in the area, among other features to the live screen which shows the view of the world around you. Layar is only available in the Netherlands now but will be availbe in the United States in the near future. Whether Wikitude or Layar becomes the application of choice will depend on how user friendly, broadly used and problem free the final products turn out.
