4. Categories FilterScreen_ Menu > “Change Filters” Buildings @ Tilburg University Catering @ Tilburg University Focus Quite far away Other Spots @ Tilburg University Far away Public Transport Bars & Night life Tilburg City Center
There is a real world. There is a virtual world. Fair enough, we already knew that! The future of information technology is about mixing those two worlds, blurring the gap between them. Mobile phones can help us generating location specific information.
Using your phone, you can point it at special POIs, better known as Points of Interest. Your phone will know where it is pointing at through “compass mode” technology and will tell you what location it is through GPS information of you and the building. The software will combine the GPS information and information on the web to provide you relevant information on the object you are pointing at.
Filters & Icons; At the filter screen, you’ve got the opportunity to choose whatever category you would like to see. Each category is distinguished through different icons. Furthermore, once a certain object is on focus, the category icon will be replaced with a focus icon, and extra information will be shown on your screen, such as information on how to get there (google maps), an attached phone number, website, or other relevant extra information. Once an object is further away, an orange or red icon will be shown..
To make use of this augmented reality, you need a supported smartphone. Then, you need the Layar software, available in your marketplace. This software is able to communicate your GPS and pointing position with the Server of Layar. Now it is only data, but it needs to be transformed to relevant information. Therefore, information needs to be provided, which is done by us in this specific case. You as a user need to select which relevant information you want to acquire. This will be communicated with the layar server, and this server will select the right information, provided by Tilburg University, and pass it on to your phone.Future; 2d and 3d information can be provided too, but this technology is in a very early stage. There are many bugs, and information shown is not perfectly nice. It is expectable that this technology will not only be further enhanced inside your mobile phone, but that it will be integrated in your glasses or lenses as well.