Augmented Reality Goes Mobile
The technology for meshing digital data with actual images, or augmented reality, makes a jump to smartphones, and the market is taking off
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It was the shake heard 'round the world. On Aug. 27, 2009, überblogger Robert Scoble uncovered a hidden software feature buried within an iPhone application that provides access to Yelp.com reviews.
The secret, it turns out, was that users needed to shake the phone to activate the capability, known as Monocle. In the wake of Scoble's discovery, shared publicly via FriendFeed, iPhone users far and wide could be seen shaking their iPhones to get access to the new feature. Yet the frenzy was about more than the novelty of how to open it, or even the trove of Yelp.com reviews.