Augmented Reality

I may be a bit late to this party, but I first discovered Yelp’s augmented reality app on an iPhone a couple of days ago while in a discussion with a family member and co-worker. The app blew my mind. Not just because of the functionality or the mere coolness of it, but because this is the beginning of something very cool (or is it?). Walking down the street and pulling out your phone to get instant access to things and or people around you in an augmented reality is wild to me. Could this be the future of interaction with one another? Makes me feel like the fat guy in the recliner in Wall-E.

A bit of background here: Augmented Reality apps basically superimpose virtual data onto your phone’s camera to create this “augmented reality”. This is an interesting read on the fundamentals http://theappleblog.com/2009/08/26/first-augmented-reality-app-for-the-iphone-is-live / There is another Yelp like review company out to conquer this as well and working on creating competitive advantage…http://mashable.com/2009/10/14/urbanspoon-augmented-reality/

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/yelp_brings_first_us_augmented_reality_to_iphone_s.php

So where are iPhone/Android apps going to go from here? What expansion stage companies are out there looking for some growth capital in order to capitalize on this market?

Not only does this apply to restaurants and entertainment stops, but beyond with people. Imagine picking up your phone in a bar, scanning a room with your camera and getting instant feedback as to who is single, who is married and who is looking to mingle. It’s going to take the whole hard to get thing out of the way. Actually this type of application scares me; it takes the human contact away from us. Years ago, AIM and AOL chat changed communication forever on a social level, and this is just the next step for interacting with people in an augmented world.