BrighterDesign

Augmented Reality - the next step for MySignpost
By The Liverpolitan Wednesday, 11 March 2011

You've read about MySignpost, the all-new online resource for practitioners of public, private, charity and voluntary provision on Greater Merseyside. Hopefully you've checked out the website, too. Well now, here comes its AR app - as in, Augmented Reality application software.

Having taken the MySignpost concept to its logical digital dimension, Brighter Design aims to keep it at the frontier of innovation, the so-called 'bleeding edge'. So we've developed a 'layer' of AR to enhance the MySignpost offer - telling you where and what kind of support and service is available while you're on the move.

Augmented Reality is activated once a 'real life scene' is placed in front of a webcam linked to the internet. Only now, as technology continues to advance, is it becoming more easily and readily available to a wider audience in the form of, for example, handheld devices like smart phones. With the location recognised or 'geo-tagged' by an inbuilt compass, up pops 'overlaid' data in the form of explanatory words or graphics.

The possibilities are endless. Take fashion and publishing: Adidas now have trainers with AR symbols in the tongues that take you to interactive games on the company's website; in the US, magazines like Esquire and Wallpaper* have recently produced AR editions.

For MySignpost's AR, we've used the successful mobile browser provided by Layar, a Dutch company founded in 2009. To find out more about the phenomenon, read Charles Arthur's excellent article for The Guardian.