The Poynt app uses augmented reality for directions
This item is an excerpt from my weekly Vegas Seven column
As we ask our smartphones to do more stuff—find restaurants, post videos to Facebook or watch TV—more speed means your mobile Web life can move as quickly as your connected home life.
One thing a fast mobile phone helps with is augmented reality, a veritable and growing mobile trend that’s set to explode in the U.S.
Augmented reality works like this: Users look at their phone’s screen while the camera is on, scanning the street ahead. Along with the real-time street scene, an augmented reality app displays text or animations (arrows pointing to the nearest pizza restaurant, illustrated footsteps leading to your ultimate destination, etc.) on top of the other, real things in the viewfinder. So if you’re visiting London and get hungry, you can pop open your phone as you walk around Piccadilly Circus, ask your phone to scan for restaurants, and have your phone show you what your options are as you walk around—and then take you straight to them.
Poynt is a great (and free) app for this, while the 99-cent cAR Locator is useful, too—it helps you find your car when you lose it in the lot.
Multiplied Media Corp.’s Poynt is already popular among BlackBerry users, but the Canadian-based company showed off its new and enhanced iPhone app at the recently concluded CTIA Wireless Show in Las Vegas. Unlike other devices, the iPhone app has an impressive display of augmented reality, including search. (BlackBerry users can use Poynt for searching and direction, but the devices don’t support augmented reality—yet.)
The app essentially “points” you to a desired location. If you want to find the nearest bar, just type the term “bar” in the search box and point your phone down the block. A text notice for nearby bars will appear on the screen, embedded into an arrow that points you in the right direction.
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