The Netherlands Architecture Institute Presents SARA

NAi's SARA AR 

I've been excited about the possibilities of Layar for quite some time now.  Acrossair's Nearest Tube - which overlays 13 of the London Underground's tube lines on your mobile, in relation to your location - was one of the first AR apps to go live in iPhone's app store and showcased the brilliant functionality and potential for this technology to augment our daily activities.  

Since then there's been loads of great apps built using this program, but I find this recent one particularly exciting.  The Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi) has created SARA, "the world’s first mobile architecture application featuring augmented reality with 3D models". This application allows you to see the architectural environment in its past, present and future state by overlaying video, photo, 3D models and scale models to buildings in situ.

Where I think this could be really great is in education and travel.  Can you imagine busting out your phone in the middle of the city (or any city) and discovering the historical significance of that particular spot??? [Ok, the geek light is flashing...]

I wonder how long it will take for TimeOut City Guides, Frommers, The Lonely Planet etc to come out with something like this.  I would definitely buy an app like that!  This technology could also really work in the entertainment industry.  Perhaps franchises like Harry Potter and Sex and the City could created similar programs to act as a guide for locations and overlay images of where certain episodes and scenes were shot.

Maarten Lens-FitzGerald, a co-founder of Layar, explains the technology as "a new and more natural way of being more knowledgeable about what is around you. It also helps you experience things you didn't know about before".  Looking forward to more advancements to this technology and how clever brands will apply it, where relevant!

What do you think? Any AR apps in particular that you'd like to see?

*Read more about SARA here