Top iPhone augmented reality apps

If you haven't yet heard of augmented reality technology and its potential with the implementation in phones, it's time to get up to scratch on what it is and how it works.

Augmented reality combines the image from your phone's camera with generated data and imagery, and in simple terms, will allow you to find places, view media based on where you are and play games that appear to be happening in the real world.

Augmented reality applications in mobile phones often use the phone's GPS and the compass in the iPhone to work out where you are.

We've picked out our top applications that use augmented reality on the iPhone with video so you can get a taster of what they are and how they work.

Layar Reality Browser
Layar.BV
Free

Layar Reality Browser is the most fully-featured example of aumented reality on the iPhone. It collates information from a number of third parties including Wikipedia, TheGigMap, London Tube Stations, UK House Hunter, Brightkite, Mazda, and London Theatres in addition to Layar's own POI directory. Layar calls these 'layars'.

These are promoted almost as if they're widgets across the favourites and popular tabs at the bottom of the screen. You can also search for a specific layar using the search tab or add them to your favourites for quick access.

When you pick one, the screen displays what can be seen through the camera on your iPhone, overlaid with a net-like graphic. This is spotted with all POIs found in each category or 'layar'.

The number of different functions is what is particularly impressive about Layar. It's not as detailed as other specific applications such as NearestPlace, but packs a lot more information in.

Here's a demo from Insanely Great Mac:

Download Layar Reality Browser from

Nearest Tube
acrossair
£1.19

It's always unnerving when you're trying to find your way back to the nearest tube station after a night out in an unknown part of London.

Nearest Tube from acrossair has developed an iPhone app in an attempt to help you find your nearest tube stop quickly, using augmented reality.

Although there are loads of augmented reality navigation applications on the App Store, we found Nearest Tube to be the quickest and most easy to understand.

Like any augmented reality applications, you simply launch the app and face your camera towards your surroundings. The nearest tube stations will pop up as an overlay on the camera's image with the distance and which lines the tube is on.

Tap on a station to pull up a Google map of how to get there with your route mapped out.

Take a look at acrossair's official demo of Nearest Tube here:

Download Nearest Tube from

DishPointer Augmented Reality
DP Technologies
£5.99

Dishpointer is an augmented reality app for nerds. It overlays the position of satellites orbiting the earth onto a map, so you know their exact position.

It displays them alongside their orbiting distance too.

You can choose exactly which satellites you want to display on the tick list in the settings menu.

At first glance, DishPointer seems a little complicated, but once you come to understand what the numbers mean, you'll be following the satellites around like a pro.

Take a look at a vdeo demo here:

Download DishPointer Augmented reality from

NearestPlaces
acrossair
£1.19

NearestPlaces is an attractive augmented reality app that shows you where the nearest PoIs are. When you launch the application, you're presented with a carousel-style menu where you can choose your point of interest, whether it's a bar, restaurant, hotel, bank, or 'parkings' and car parks are described.

Once you've chosen what you want to find, all the places that fit into that category are displayed atop the view from the iPhone's camera, detailing their distance from you. The places appear in the general direction of the PoI's location.

Tap on the box that displays the venue's information and a full-screen page pops up, with distance, address, phone number (which can be called straight from the app), star ratings and the choice to rate it, plus share options and directions.

Watch a video demo of NearestPlaces here:

Download Nearest Places

Magicam
I.M.A.G.E Ltd
£0.59

Magicam is an example of how augmented reality can be fun as well as useful for navigation.

It allows you to add an object to your surroundings.

When you open the app up, an alien appears on top of whatever your camera is pointing at. Tap the circle on the bottom right to access a full list of the objects you can place. You can move the image around and pinch to make it smaller, tilt the object or make it bigger using the iPhone's multitouch screen

To capture the image, tap on the camera button in the cetre of the bottom toolbar. It'll then be saved to your photos folder.

Take a look at our video of Magicam here:

Download Magicam from

NearestWiki
acrossair
£1.19

NearestWiki is a service that combines Wikipedia's data with augmented reality.

Like other augmented reality apps, it will locate PoIs in the area using GPS, and small information boxes appear on top pf the camera's image where there's something interesting to see. Tap on a box and the Wikipedia entry will appear in your Safari browser.

It's a cut-down version of Wikipedia, but this makes it much easier to view on your iPhone's screen.

Take a look at NearestWiki in this video:

Download the NearestWiki application from

London Tube
Presslite
£0.59

London Tube is an app to help you find the nearest tube station, just like the Nearest Tube application.

London Tube also includes other features to help you plan a tube journey, find your location and view the whole tube map.

The augmented reality aspect is only used for the location part of the app, both to search for nearby stations and PoIs.

View our video of the London Tube app here:

Download London Tube from

Cyclopedia
Chemical Wedding
£1.19

Cyclopedia is another encyclopedia application that uses augmented reality.

The interface is a lot busier than NearestWiki, displaying arrows at the top of the screen indicating where PoIs are and degrees to the north, south, east and west at the bottom.

As you approach a PoI, they will appear at the bottom of the screen in orange boxes. Tap on these to find ut more information about them

Watch our video of Cyclopedia to learn more:

Download Cyclopedia from