During Mobile Monday Amsterdam #11 Robert Rice and Joe Pine II, two excellent speakers, addressed the very interesting topic of Augmented Reality. Both speakers had different approaches and views on addressing the topic, but it resulted in a great event and perception on Augmented reality.

This article will show a YouTube video titled: “TNT Post goes mobile with Layar” and it certainly is cool to see a combination of two worlds ! We can’t deny that TNT Mail has suffered from modern technologies like e-mail, which had a large impact on the number of sent “physical” letters. Therefore it’s especially cool to see both -seemingly contradicting- worlds combined into this YouTube video.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3Bae7LwgSc

What is Layar ?

On the Layar product website a product description is available, which clearly outlines the purpose and concept of Layar:

“Layar is a free application on your mobile phone which shows what is around you by displaying real time digital information on top of reality through the camera of your mobile phone. Layar is a global application, available for the T-Mobile G1, HTC Magic and other Android phones in all Android Markets. It also comes pre-installed on the Samsung Galaxy in the Netherlands.”

Layar is a combination of the words layer and augmented reality, so it probably isn’t a big surprise that several layers are “projected” on top of the real world.

“View all 87 layers that are now live (or almost) all over the world in the Layar 2.0 Content Catalog.”

Thoughts and Wrap-up

While currently this application is only developed for the free Google Android platform, it certainly is cool to see such new applications as a result of cleverly combining different existing technologies currently available in a mobile phone.

Also comparing the old TNT Mail business model with the business model of a company like Layar, would be an interesting and insighful case study to conduct. It might result in a clash of both the Augmented Reality and “real” worlds, but it also shows advancement in technology- and application development.

I’m sure that a company like TNT Mail certainly has intered the online- and mobile domain is well, searching for new opportunities and challenges. Question however will be if both models can co-exist next to each other !!?

Recently version 2.1 of Layar Reality Browser was launched, so if you are open to explore new technology applications and get a whole different perception on Augmented Reality and interacting with your environment you should certainly grab your Google Android powered phone and install Layar Reality browser on it ! Would be cool if you can share some personal experiences in the comment-section !

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