Filed under: iPhone, App Review
Use Augmented Reality to find your car
I have to admit, when I park in a big lot, I often forget where old Betsy is. There have been more than a few iPhone apps to help you find your car, but Car Finder [iTunes link] uses augmented reality to get you pointed in the right direction.Here's how it works: you get out of your car and mark your position, making sure you have a good GPS fix. If you don't have one, you'll be told that and see the accuracy of your fix in plus or minus meters.
You can give your location a name, and if your parking space is numbered, you can add that in. I guess that is helpful if you are parking where there is no GPS signal, but then this app won't be of much help.
You're then free to go your merry way, until it's time to find your car again. When you bring up the app, your iPhone camera is activated, and a red arrow points to your car. Swing the camera around until an icon for your car appears and start walking. You'll get a constant read-out of your distance.
In my tests, just after sunset, the app worked very well, although when I got right next to the car the arrow was pointing elsewhere. That's not surprising given the imperfect accuracy of GPS, but by the time I got the error I could see the car less than 25 feet away.
Car Finder is U.S. $0.99, so it's not over priced, and pretty much in line with other similar apps in terms of cost. The augmented reality is a nice touch, as it floats your car icon over the real world. You do get a legal warning from the app about using due caution, I guess so you won't step into a manhole or off a cliff while following the camera scene. What a litigious society we live in!
So, Car Finder works, isn't over priced, uses augmented reality which has a high 'buzz word quotient,' and should impress your non-iPhone using friends, if you have any.
You'll need an iPhone 3GS to make this work, because the compass and GPS do the heavy lifting.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jason said 8:25AM on 11-03-2009
That looks great. The only problem is that it's only going to work with surface lots. Too bad it won't help when I'm trying to find my car in some enormous airport parking garage.
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Cris said 12:59PM on 11-03-2009
In the comments section of the source article, someone asked about the "y-axis" being used to find your car on a multi-level garage, and the developer said they pulled that feature at the last minute but will add it back in for the next release.
carbonadam said 8:42AM on 11-03-2009
Holy crap! Soon someone will make an app to find your own dick!
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James said 12:45PM on 11-03-2009
I'd buy that.
Eideard said 9:14AM on 11-03-2009
If your endocrine and central nervous systems work, you needn't see to find it.
brian said 10:46AM on 11-03-2009
Cool! I'll definitely get this. Lots of big parking lots where I live. For covered lots, I take a picture of the sign that shows which section I'm in.
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Actionable Mango said 12:18PM on 11-03-2009
If you can't remember where your car is, how will you remember AHEAD OF TIME to start the app, get a fix, and mark your spot?
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Andrew said 3:32PM on 11-03-2009
It all depends on where you are. For example, I was looking for an app like this the other day when I went to the fair. I parked in a parking lot I was fairly unfamiliar with, and had to walk half a mile to get in, plus it was going to be dark when I got back.
Todd Vaziri said 1:18PM on 11-03-2009
Does anyone know if this app also gives you a Map view of the area, with your car indicated on the map? Or does it provide *only* an augmented reality view of your car's location?
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Kree said 4:43AM on 11-04-2009
@Todd
I would assume this could be done with the built in Google Maps. Get a fix on your current location, and then make a bookmark or pin.
Brendan G. Lim said 2:05PM on 11-04-2009
We'll be adding that into the next release
r4 card said 4:52AM on 11-07-2009
Thanx for the valuable information. This was just the thing I was looking for, the product seems worth buying... keep posting. Will be visiting back soon.
(http://www.r4ds.com.mx)
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Melissa Digitalis said 7:25AM on 11-11-2009
Wow this is great, I constantly forget where I have parked! Augmented Reality is really a hot topic at the moment it was once something used in fighter planes and now it's become mainstream with several new applications launched on the iPhone, a game for the Nintendo Wii, the cover of Esquire Magazine and even the Ultra-thin which turns an A4 sheet of paper into a laptop...http://tiny.cc/rDIBw. I'm interested to see the impact of these new technologies.
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