Skip to Content

Nearest Tube's augmented reality on the iPhone 3GS

by Mike Schramm Jul 7th 2009 at 11:00AM

This (extremely loud, be careful) video has been making the rounds lately -- it's a demo of a new app called Nearest Tube that isn't quite in the App Store yet, but uses both your location information along with the iPhone's compass and video camera to show you an augmented reality picture of where and in which directions around you the nearest London Tube station is. Very cool use of the technology, and while I'm not actually in London to use it (and I don't have a 3GS -- obviously the compass is required to make this all work), it looks like it works pretty well. Some of you folks in London will have to give it a try when it gets approved and tell us what you think.

Oh, and the whole augmented reality thing -- get ready to hear that term a lot. On the TUAW team list, we were just chatting about microprojectors as well (rumored to be coming to iPhones and iPod touches), and as all of these technologies (video, projectors, compasses and location information) all start to get combined and hooked up to some serious computing power, your phone will be able to tell you more and more about what it sees in the world around you, from Tube or road directions like this app, to restaurants and stores, stars in the sky, and even other iPhones and their users. Hold on to your hats, because more and more, developers won't need to simulate the world around you when they can just show you an augmented version of it through your iPhone's screen.

View Tags

Related Stories

Categories

Analysis / Opinion Software Video Developer iPhone App Store

This (extremely loud, be careful) video has been making the rounds lately -- it's a demo of a new app called Nearest Tube that isn't quite...
 

Add a Comment

Sign in »
*0 / 3000 Character Maximum

12 Comments

Filter by:
loerchner

I have started a facebook group petitioning Apple to open the API for video augmentation. This will allow agmented reality apps in the store! Please join and pass it on:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=105162007611

July 11 2009 at 10:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Andy

It was to solve exactly this kind of problem that maps were invented :-/ !

Think about it - using this app, to find your nearest station you have to scan a full 360º, looking like a pillock and a prime street robbery target. With a map (eg. Maps app on the iPhone) you just pull it out, hit the locate button and search for 'tube'. Easy.

July 08 2009 at 4:57 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Andy's comment
BenJo

Map's probably more convenient, but I think that bit at the start where pointing the phone down shows arrows is meant to allow you to figure out where the stations are without doing a 360. Difficult to tell with the video resolution though.

July 08 2009 at 5:32 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Greg

Damn! Wasn't this thing a pair of glasses in Mona Lisa Overdrive?

July 07 2009 at 4:05 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Greg's comment
Mike

now wouldn't that be cool? couldn't you hook in a pair of those video glasses, hook this onto something stationary like your belt buckle, and see the world with a whole new, "augmented" set of eyes?

wow...

July 07 2009 at 7:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
BenJo

@freakscene: what are you talking about? The perspective on the iPhone matches the surroundings in its entirety, and CNet.co.uk seem to have received and tested a review copy, see http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/0,39029453,49302880,00.htm

If there's an API violation that's one thing, but this clearly isn't fake and I can't figure out what you mean about the video.

July 07 2009 at 3:01 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
freakscene

Not only is delay right about this app using undocumented APIs, but the demo is entirely faked. It's vaporware. Look at the last few seconds as the iPhone-holder pivots around. The perspective on the iPhone doesn't change. I can't believe this is still being passed around.

But it does make salient a larger point, which is that no apps like this will get approved into the iPhone store because you can't use custom camera views. I just don't understand why Apple would restrict that.

July 07 2009 at 1:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Peteo

There is already a ARG in the App store called the hidden park that uses the iPhone camera and GPS. Looks really cool. I have not tried it yet, Maybe TUAW can do a review?

http://www.thehiddenpark.com/

July 07 2009 at 1:10 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
delay

I don't think this app is coming anytime soon unfortunately. They are using custom camera views to display the stuff on top of the video display. So you probably won't see this unless apple changes their SDK or loosens up their rules. This is the same reason you haven't seen any third party camera apps updated in the last several months to work with iPhone 3.0 OS.

July 07 2009 at 12:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Beanie

I remember having an Augmented Reality game on my Treo 650 a few years ago. You used the camera and shot at these alien ships that would fly around in the real world, it was pretty awesome, can't wait to see how this has advanced with more computing power.

July 07 2009 at 11:46 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
lanejasper69

Cool, but serious, the audio ...arrgghhh... step away from the mic!!


Thanks for the warning TUAW! It was loud after I turned down volume, glad I did!!

July 07 2009 at 11:26 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
derekknighttx

OK. That's cool.

July 07 2009 at 11:07 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Buy an ad here

Hot Apps on TUAW

Tweets

© 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.