SPRXmobile Opens Up its Layar Augmented Reality Platform to Developers

Dutch mobile technology provider, SPRXmobile, announced Wednesday that it is opening up its mobile augmented reality browser, Layar, which it launched just last month, to developers (note: for more on the Layar browser, see the article posted on itvt.com, June 17th). The browser, which will initially be available free-of-charge in the Netherlands for handsets running the Android operating system, displays real-time digital information on top of a mobile phone's camera screen--effectively transforming reality into a giant, real-time interactive video experience. While looking through their phone's camera lens, users can see overlays with, for example, information on houses that are for sale, local bars and stores, healthcare providers and ATM's. Thus, for example, a user looking to buy a house could select a real-estate "layer" (as SPRXmobile calls its overlays), specify a maximum budget, and then, whenever they pointed their mobile's camera at a house for sale within their price range from a participating real estate company, they would see a small dot over the house, together with clickable information about the house (e.g. price, contact info for the realtor who represents it) on an "information bar" at the bottom of the screen.

SPRXmobile says that it will this month provide 50 "developer keys" to interested companies around the world, that will allow those companies to create and publish digital layers within the browser (it claims that any database with location coordinates can be transformed into an augmented reality layer). To request a key, interested parties must fill out a form at layar.com/api. The company says that it will provide tools such as API documentation, a publication process, and a test environment for new layers. It plans to release more keys in the future.

According to the company, the Layar API allows developers to completely customize the look-and-feel of their augmented reality layer, which it says could include reflecting their branding via a color scheme and custom icons for the layer, exposing the database with points of interest (POI), custom indicators for various types of POI, and assigning custom actions to each POI (e.g., go to mobile URL, call number, make route). "Already days after the launch we saw that we needed to open up Layar for developers," SPRXmobile co-founder, Raimo van der Klein, said in a prepared statement. "We believe this is the only way to bring all the creativity and ideas which are out there to the Layar platform. We can't wait to see what people will do with Layar." Added co-founder, Claire Boonstra: "This is a unique opportunity for brands to be present and accessible in a contextually relevant manner: in the reality of the people they want to reach. The only things needed are a good idea, a database with location coordinates and a developer key."

SPRXmobile is also organizing a Developer Day in Amsterdam on August 17th. The company says that it will provide more information at the event about the release schedule and roadmap for the Layar browser. SPRXmobile is not the only augmented reality company to open up its platform to developers: Austria-based Mobilizy has also announced plans to release an API for its Wikitude platform.

In other augmented reality news:

• Michael Zoellner, a developer at German research institution, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, has developed an augmented reality Twitter viewer for the iPhone 3GS. Dubbed TwittAround, the application shows live tweets around the user's location, allowing the user to see where a tweet is coming from and how far away from them the Twitter user is who sent it. "The whole application is developed in Webkit (UIWebView/Safari Mobile)," Zoellner explains on his project Web site. "A native Cocoa wrapper delegates location, compass and accelerometer to JavaScript in the UIWebView. The 3D scene is based on Safari Mobile's brilliant 3D CSS transforms. The Ajax part is done with jQuery. After writing some native iPhone apps, this Webkit approach seems to be ideal for rapid development of applications independent of the iPhone UI."
• A group of augmented reality developers and enthusiasts have launched a petition/open letter to Apple Developer Relations, complaining that developers are unable to publish their AR applications on the Apple App Store, because the iPhone SDK lacks public API's for manipulating live video. "We are asking Apple to provide a public API to access live video in real time, on the iPhone," the petition states. "The impact of augmented reality (AR) on our lives could be as significant as the introduction of the PC," it continues. "In 10 years, we believe augmented reality will change the way everyone experiences travel, design, training, personal productivity, health care, entertainment, games, art, and advertising (videos). Looking back just a few years, AR pioneers had to hack a slew of components into ridiculously large backpacks and HUD's, and be confined to rigged environments. Nowadays, it comes in friendly, affordable packages and the iPhone is one of the first devices to have it all--except for a public API. The battle to determine the winning device has already begun; a public API to access live video will give the iPhone a lucrative ticket to compete. We believe Apple has a window of opportunity of about 3 months before developers start looking elsewhere. If Apple decides to publish the API in that time frame--in the next 10 years, everyone might be using the iPhone as the preferred device to interact with the real world." (Note: the full text of the petition, together with some examples of augmented reality applications, is available at http://tinyurl.com/ly82we.)
• A London-based company called acrossair has launched Nearest Tube, an augmented reality application for the Apple iPhone 3GS that allows users to look through their phone's camera screen to determine where the nearest London Underground ("Tube") station is. "When you load the app, holding it flat, all 13 lines of the London Underground are displayed in colored arrows," the company explains on its Web site. "By tilting the phone upwards, you will see the nearest stations: what direction they are in relation to your location, how many kilometers and miles away they are and what Tube lines they are on. If you continue to tilt the phone upwards, you will see stations further away, as stacked icons." The company says that the app will launch commercially as soon as Apple approves it.
• Giuseppe Costanza, a graduating MA student at Central Saint Martin's College of Art & Design in London, has developed an augmented reality app called FoodTracer that allows users to look through their smartphone's camera screen at the supermarket in order to find out information on food items (for example, whether a product is organic and/or locally produced).