Readers who attended a birthday party for teenagers in either the 1980s or 90s will recall laser tag, a game in which participants wore light-sensitive vests that registered a hit when shot by “laser” guns wielded by other players. The new Apple patent describes a very similar system, in which iPhones could be used as both “gun” and “vest,” using the GPS, gyroscope and accelerometer built-in to the device to fire shots and detect those fired by others.

Accessory makers will be pleased to know that Apple is thinking of them, too, as it describes using things like a gun grip handle to augment the experience. Imagine the kind of cheap plastic add-on market the Wii remote currently enjoys invading Apple Store shelves.

Before you dismiss this idea outright, remember that Apple has made games in the past, including Texas Hold’em for the iPhone. It’s serious enough about the potential behind this idea to actually go to the trouble of securing a patent for it. Plus, the idea combines augmented reality, geolocation, and shows off just about all of the iPhone’s fancy internal sensors, so from a marketing perspective, it’s a solid concept.

Honestly, if this ever sees the light of day, I’ll be all over it. Think about the Game Center achievements and how much fun it could be if Apple included random location-based matchmaking. Would you play if Apple made something like this available?

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Augmented Reality (AR) is a hot topic in the app stores these days. So, what’s AR? It’s multiple technologies being used simultaneously to provide you with data relevant to your location. This includes your phone’s compass to determine the direction you are facing, GPS to determine your exact location, an Internet connection to gather information about your surroundings, a camera to capture your reality and the screen to augment it with extremely specific data.

The app that gets the most free publicity is Layar for its on-again off-again relationship with Apple’s App Store. Whether or not this app should be allowed in the App Store is the issue people have been harping on for several months now. I think there is a much more urgent AR issue.

You look completely ridiculous when you use it.

Seriously. People take pictures all the time with their mobile phones. It’s a simple, quick task. But using an AR app is confusing and time-consuming. You have to maintain the phone’s direction and camera angle otherwise you lose the details on your screen. Your face is glued to your screen for a longer-than-appropriate time period. We have quickly grown accustomed to people looking down at their phones while walking around town (although some would argue that this is aggravating and dangerous). AR users have taken this awkward behavior to a new high since their phones are at eye level with people walking by.

Below is Layar showing the Drink layer. Note the confusing interface that requires thorough focus to decipher while you are standing on a sidewalk holding your phone in the air.

Here’s Yelp’s easier-to-comprehend (although it can quickly become cluttered) “Monacle” feature. Note: To activate this feature you must shake your phone when on the Nearby tab.

And finally, an innocent AR user begging to be mugged while trying to learn more about his location.

We can all agree that AR is extremely cool. Hopefully it will soon be a useful way to understand your surroundings. But for now these apps feel more like usability and HCI research experiments.

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Augmented Reality: Lots of Promise, Lots of Hurdles

Late Wednesday, augmented reality (subscription required) app Layar finally hit the App Store. It received a lot of buzz early on in the days of AR on mobile devices, and was released long ago for devices running Google’s Android OS.

The idea behind the browser is that multiple points of interest (POI) are displayed on top of a live feed from your camera. The POI information is drawn from multiple sources, which you can select from using the the menu at the bottom of the app. Each source provides different kinds of information, about transit, for instance, or about general tourist destinations, etc.

Fast Company can barely contain its enthusiasm for the new app, as is evident from the following quote:

The marriage between useful/fun/vital/helpful location-based data offered by Layar, the GPS and digital compass built into the iPhone 3GS (a 3G version is coming, Layar promises), and the legion of developers building new code for the platform give it a good shot at becoming the most popular AR browser on the market, if not a genuine killer app. Especially since it’s free.

While I admit that AR and its various applications are fairly exciting, and something that I’ve keyed in on in the past, I can’t seem to bring myself to apply the term “killer app” to this particular offering from Layar (subscription required). Not that it doesn’t do what it claims to. It does, and it does so for free, as Fast Company points out.

My problem is that it does it without much grace, or flair, or without anything to make it feel particularly well-suited to the iPhone platform. Admittedly, it was an Android app first, and maybe that’s why it doesn’t feel like it necessarily belongs on the iPhone, but I think it’s more than that.

For reference, compare Yelp’s “Monocle” AR feature to Layar’s implementation. Layar features a weird horizon plane grid that seems to be more distracting than anything else. Plus, with the cramped UI which tries to do too much on a single screen, I feel like I’m not actual getting as much usable information as I am with Yelp.

In short, despite the multiple filters it offers, and neat features like having those filters specially selected based on your geographical location, I don’t think I’ll ever be using Layar again. A ho-hum interface, and some odd usability quirks make this app feel like a tech demo that showed up at the party way too late. If you’re looking for usable AR, try Yelp’s Monocle mode, or just sit tight and wait for the next generation of AR apps.

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• Augmented Reality: Lots of Promise, Lots of Hurdles
• Augmented Reality Coming to Mobile in a Big Way

Fueled by a burning desire to bring you the latest iPhone app recommendations, I’ve kept a keen eye on the new App Store releases this week. As ever, I’ve hand-picked four apps for you to check out.

This week I’ve given my picks a social twist, whether it’s tweeting, traveling or just talking. My top pick for this week is Ping!, plus I’ve also been looking at TwitMusic, Papaya Farm and Nearest Places.

Ping! (Free)

In just over a year I’ve purchased two iPhones — a 3G and a 3GS — totaling just over €1,000. Alongside the two iPhones, I’ve also paid €15 per month for my 3G connection, €2 per month for my carrier contract and countless euros per day on apps.

I’m not actually going to tally all of that up. My brain refuses to let me. Let’s all agree that it’s a lot of money and I’d be forgiven for leaping on any opportunity to save a bit of my hard-earned cash.

With that in mind, Ping! is the perfect antidote to a dwindling bank account. Currently free to download, the app allows you to send SMS-style messages over your data connection, which are then delivered via push to other contacts who are also registered with Ping!.

Indeed, there’s a few other IM apps that handle push, but it’s worth noting that Ping! isn’t instant messaging as such, it’s much more akin to SMS. You don’t pay to send messages, or receive, and your account is free too. Registration literally takes ten seconds, from within the app, so you’ve got no excuses — grab that app!

TwitMusic (99 cents)

Earlier this week, Loren Brichter finally announced that he has submitted the long-awaited update to Tweetie, his Apple Design Award-winning Twitter client for iPhone. If this is news to you then check out my in depth preview from earlier this week.

The latest version of Tweetie, a complete overhaul of the original app, packs in an overwhelming array of new features. However, there’s a few features missing — such as groups, push and music tweeting — that would have certainly bolstered the app’s offering even more.

The latter of the three features I just mentioned is covered by TwitMusic. It’s an app designed for just one function: tweeting whatever song you’re listening to right now. The app will grab all the details about whatever tune you’re rocking at that moment and push it to Twitter. An excellent app for those who like sharing their personal soundtrack with the world.

Papaya Farm (Free)

A few weeks back I tried out Button, an unsettling multiplayer game in which the only objective is to push the big green button. Randomly tapping the mysterious button throughout the day has given me a test for more multiplayer gaming on my iPhone.

Compared to Button, Papaya Farm, despite it’s slightly more complex gameplay, is much more relaxing. The game finds you tending to your own digital farm: a place where the virtual grass is lush and green, and, with your assistance, the harvest is fruitful.

The real game begins when you start playing with your friends. Your fellow farmers play dirty and attempt to steal your crops. In retaliation, you install security dogs. Your friends then send you abusive messages via Ping! You subsequently forget that all you really wanted to do was grow a carrot. The game descends into chaos. It’s great fun.

Nearest Places ($1.99)

The final app this week is just for 3GS owners. Nearest Places is an app that makes use of augmented reality (subscription required). This buzzword seems to have just become fashionable again but it does mean something pretty cool: you can look through your camera and see lots of extra data about the world around you, Terminator style!

Rather than point you in the direction of your local subway or tube station, Nearest Places brings just about everything else to you. Through your iPhone’s camera you’ll be able to locate the nearest bars, museums, ATMs and more.

Acrossair, the folks behind the app, have uploaded several videos on YouTube showing how its augmented reality technology works on iPhone. If you’re still unsure how it’ll actually work on your 3GS, you can also check out Yelp’s app, available for free, which contains an augmented reality Easter egg.

That’s all the picks for this week. I’ll be back in seven days with a fresh selection of App Store recommendations.

In the meantime, what apps have you been using this week?

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• Augmented Reality: Lots of Promise, Lots of Hurdles
• How to Market Your iPhone App: A Developer’s Guide

We believe AR will eventually be ubiquitous, perhaps even to the point where users sometimes don’t even consider the differences between the real world and the virtual world. And we believe mobile phones will be the gateway medium for AR, which will eventually find audiences both massive (phones and other connected consumer devices) and tiny (niche applications in health care and enterprise, for example).

Read the full article on GigaOm Pro → (subscription required)

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• Augmented Reality: Lots of Promise, Lots of Hurdles

Yelp is one of the App Store’s early successes. It offers crowdsourced locations and reviews of restaurants, bars, and other points of interests for tourists and leisure seekers. As such, it’s the perfect app for AR, which in this case consists of location names and ratings overlaid on a live feed from your iPhone’s (3GS only) camera.

Since it’s an Easter egg and not an advertised feature, activating Monocle mode requires an extra step beyond just downloading and opening the free app. Specifically, you have to shake your 3GS three times in succession with the app open. Mine worked on the first try, but I’m sure just shaking it until it works will open up the option eventually.

In my extremely brief, extremely office-based test, the app appears to work perfectly, so long as my sense of direction isn’t terribly off. As you can see from my screenshot, many culinary delights lie in the general direction of my iMac. I’ll be doing some more involved tests later this evening to see what kind of effect Monocle mode has on my battery life, but I can’t imagine it’s very energy efficient.

It’s unclear whether or not Apple was aware of this feature when it let this update through, so grab it now while you still can. If it gets pulled, let us know so we can be collectively indignant.

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• How to Market Your iPhone App: A Developer’s Guide
• Mobilize 09 Wrap-up

So, it’s finally here. Augmented Reality (AR) has hit the iPhone, and nothing will ever be the same again. Prepare for the Future.

Except…don’t bother. Why, you ask?

Because it’s just not that exciting. It’s definitely cool, sure. But after the initial novelty wears off, you’ll be back to boasting to friends about how well Copy & Paste works on your $300 cell phone and, only if you remember (and only if you’re in the right geographical location), you might you fire up your AR app of choice.

To be clear, Metro Paris Subway isn’t designed to be an AR app first and foremost. It has been available for some time, and augmented reality functionality is just one of many new features added in the 3.0 update. Other features include support for push notifications, in-app purchases and quick-view disruption reporting via the application icon’s badges. It just so happens that the AR feature is the first of its kind to get official approval and distribution from Apple.

AR is the new way of seeing the world. Put ever so simply, it’s made possible by the iPhone’s GPS, magnetometer and camera gathering their data together and comparing it with a database of geo-coordinates optionally tied to images of what’s at those coordinates. Yeah, that’s the simple overview. It can get far more complicated and nuanced than that, but the underlying premise remains the same irrespective of which platform or software you use.

The upshot is that you point your camera at, say, Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square and, in real time, overlaid on the image on your screen, a box appears telling you that you’re looking at Nelson’s Column. Another box tells you you’re standing in Trafalgar Square. Optional other boxes might tell you who tweeted there recently.

It sounds terribly exciting, but I suspect once you’ve used it once, the thrill will subside rather quickly.

Scoble recently said of the upcoming technology;

“Augmented Reality apps are about to become the HUGE rage on the iPhone. Why? They demo well.”

He’s quite correct. Take a look at this YouTube video of an augmented reality concept from The Astonishing Tribe:

Impressive, no?

Even More Impressive If You’re NOT American

I don’t know why, but AR is gaining more traction outside the States. In a TechCrunch article from the 17th of this month, it was noted how science fiction writer (and WIRED contributor) Bruce Sterling had:

“…pointed out that the biggest language bases for AR are actually Korean and Dutch with English coming in third. Similarly, the greatest interest is not in San Francisco but places like Singapore, Lisbon and Amsterdam. Could this be a new tech industry which does not revolve around Silicon Valley?”

Sterling reportedly referred to AR as a “technovisionary’s dream come true” but warned that, as with any big technology destined for the big time, it would be susceptible to:

“…the AR equivalents of spam and online criminality, the Gartner hype cycle, the environmental impact. [Sterling] imagined a ‘Crack dealers layer’ or ‘Neo-nazi’s occupation guide to Amsterdam’.”

I can already hear the plaintive wails of so-called “Privacy Advocates” who didn’t give a damn when AR apps appeared on Google’s Android platform. But the iPhone is so much more popular and for most publications (even those not usually interested in technology), it’s fashionable to write about Apple and its products.

Of course, it’s only a matter of time before we see the App Store crowded with AR-enabled apps. Some of them will be great, and a small fraction of those will be revolutionary. But most, I expect, will be time and battery-draining garbage.

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• How to Market Your iPhone App: A Developer’s Guide
• Mobilize 09 Wrap-up

How’s your reality? Blasé, run-of-the-mill, so-so? Fear not — an augmented reality is right around the corner, so long as you own an iPhone 3GS. Yes, Android is well ahead of the game in this particular area, but at least one app is already awaiting Apple’s approval that makes use of this exciting, new technology. It’s called Nearest Tube, and it tells you where to find the nearest tube (station) in London.

Now, I’m not in London, and most of you probably aren’t either (though a few of you are), so what’s the big deal? The big deal is that this app shows off what the new iPhone 3GS is really capable of in terms of augmented reality, and also what it specifically isn’t, which may be more important in the long run.

First, the good. According to the developer’s tech demo (see video below), and CNET UK‘s own trial of the software, it works as advertised, displaying a color-coded heads-up display of floating tube station markers with distance and station name superimposed on the live feed from your iPhone’s camera. Laid flat, the iPhone displays arrows pointing to each of London’s tube lines.

It uses GPS information and the 3GS’ built-in compass to determine your location and orientation. When you hold the phone up, it arranges individual stations by their proximity to you. CNET points out that that proximity is based on a straight-line distance, so it isn’t always entirely accurate, but it’s close enough to be practically useful. The usual compass caveats apply, including steering clear of magnetic interference. Making a similar app for any major metropolis, including U.S. ones, shouldn’t present that much of a challenge. Thanks to the Maps API, even more advanced directional abilities should be possible, too, including built-in walking and transit directions.

Now, the bad. The Nearest Tube app has to make do with images from the iPhone’s camera, instead of the preferable live video feed. This means that it’s basically just using GPS and compass features, and then pasting that info on top of the camera images. It can’t interact with the pictures themselves, as apps can on Android. That means no fancy image-recognition tricks involving famous landmarks for the time being.

Nearest Tube developer Acrossair has joined up with 14 other iPhone software companies to petition Apple to grant access to the video API in the same way that they have the device’s camera to make this possible. Hopefully, Apple listens and includes this in an upcoming firmware revision, or else we’ll still be playing catch-up with Google’s mobile OS for the foreseeable future.

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• Mobilize 09 Wrap-up
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