VentureBeat

A few more augmented reality applications came out after we published a primer on the space last week. Augmented reality blends real-world video feeds with 3-D graphics or information overlays. Imagine taking your iPhone or Android phone’s camera out while traveling abroad, panning around in a town square and seeing history, photos and video from the past superimposed over the viewfinder. Here are two of the latest such apps to appear:

FoodTracer helps you learn about the origin and production of food products while browsing a shopping aisle. Giuseppe Costanza, who designed it as part of his master’s thesis at Central Saint Martins in London, created the concept to let shoppers know if they’re buying local and organic produce. FoodTracer can also pull up info on the carbon footprint of the food and whether its packaging is recyclable.

FoodTracer concept+demo from gusepo on Vimeo.

And iPhone application developer acrossair, which created TVGuide U.K., just released its first augmented reality program called Nearest tube. When a user holds the iPhone flat, it shows all 13 lines of the London Underground system. Then as you tilt the phone up, the application shows what direction the stops are in and their distance.

(Via Bruce Sterling on Wired, Augmented Reality Times)

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