Weekly Linkfest

Weekly Linkfest

Actually, it was a relatively quiet week in the ARSphere. Here are some links to news bits that I haven't had the time to cover over here:

In the mobile AR front:

• Kooaba is an iPhone application that much like Snaptell (or Nokia's "Point and Find") lets you take a picture of a product and get information about it. Now they venture into the realm of AR browsers, but since they fail to show their image-based browser working on a real iPhone, I'll remain skeptic for now.
• Cyborg is an AR application that helps you find the cheapest gas station around. Yes, they could do that with a simple map, but that's like having a web 2.0 site without rounded corners.
• And if you live in Hong Kong, forget about gas prices, just use this application to find the nearest train.

And in other news:

• Sony lets you put a virtual animal mask on your head (if you have a Playstation, of course). That's quite similar to this application from Ubisoft that do the same with MSN messenger.
• First augmented book in Britain is about dragons, and powered by Total Immersion tech.
• Augmented reality wiki - what a fab idea! (especially considering the dire state of the "augmented reality" article at Wikipedia).
• AdoptMe.com offers you to adopt augmented pets. Haven't tested it, but seems quite shabby (it's like the site's design was taken from 1996).
  

This week video comes from Techcrunch's favorite Tonchidot, makers of the Sekai Camera. Apparently their application was finally submitted to the iPhone's appstore, and we may soon compare it to other AR browsers. The next video is indeed in Japanese, but starting from 0:45 you can easily understand what's going on, even if you are not a native Japanese speaker. It certainly has some Japanese flair to it:



Have a nice week!