Just going through good news for Nokia owners, I came across a thought as to so much have been achieved by a mobile world. Well, I am thoroughly excited to experience augmented reality on my Symbian. Yes, Layar launched its augmented reality version for Symbian applications. I am sure just like me, many of you must have thought of the disappearing charm belonging to Nokia Phones. Listening to Android and iPhone, I had almost lost faith in Symbian application development. However, Layar has rebuilt the faith proving there are still millions of Symbian Smartphone owners out there, representing a lucrative market for developers.
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[/caption]With tons of Layars to choose from on OVI store, you can surely expect same functionality the Android and iPhone versions offer. All Symbian^3 phones are supported (Nokia N8, C7, C6-01 and E7) as well as few S60 5th Edition devices (Nokia N97 and N97 mini).
Augmented reality is something that is being heard since early 2009; however, the question arises as to why Layar thought launching its Augmented Reality browser to Nokia-based OS so late? It has been on Android and iOS for a long time now. Is it that difficult to develop a Symbian version or is there something else? I guess, we’ll soon find out.
What is augmented reality?
According to Wikipedia, our office knowledge sensei, an augmented reality is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are augmented by virtual computer-generated imagery.
People who are new to the entire concept of augmented reality; here I bring-in explanation to what it is. Augmented reality enables users to overlay digital content onto a view of the real world. As its name suggests, developers create individual ‘layers’ for the app, each of which does something different. For example, using your handset’s camera, GPS, accelerometer and digital compass, the handset can bring up information about a local business, including local tweet, shopping data, travel data, and much more.
There are various layers like weather layer that fetches the weather forecast in your city; office layer finds more details about the office and satellite tracks that spot satellites in space. A simple example of one of the augmented reality layer is, point your camera to a location and through GPS and compass you can get detail of the place.
Features of Layar for Symbian phone applications are as follows:
- Facilitates discovering places and find details about the places from the list of layers that are both free and paid.
- Switch between live and augmented reality mode easily.
- Explore 3D objects, sounds, videos and amazing interactivity with different Layers.
- Get directions to a nearby Layer location easily.
- Change between the genre of old and new look of the places.
- Share the place, take a picture and post it on twitter.
- Discover restaurants, bars, shops and houses nearby.
- Learn history of a particular building or a monument.
An Insight to Layar
Layar adopts simple things. It takes a streaming image input from your mobile phone’s camera, and adds one, or even a number of layers onto it, also knighted filters. With these filters you can find Pizza shops, bars, pubs, interesting art, or even, houses in the vicinity. With 400 layers and more, I am sure you will find something useful for yourself.
Layar’s own local search engine can be called as one of the most basic but significant filters. The layer does a Google Maps search, and surrounds you with the results on a grid. It asks you for only two things to fetch you what you need: the keyword and the distance. Layar and Google will initially show you the name and distance of the object searched for. In case you need more information, just focus on a specific information and press OK button. You’ll get the address, phone number and can even plot your route.
Layar has also proved efficient when I travel, I now use these layers to learn the history of Italy or Egypt, or simply which way to walk to the nearest subway station. Just point your camera and follow the virtual signs!
About the Author:Grey Matter India (GMI) Technologies Pvt. Ltd. is a leading IT services and solutions provider that excels at providing web application development Symbian application development, wireless application development, and offshore mobile application development service.
Articles Source: Live in Augmented Reality Unveiled for Symbian Applications
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