Mobile Behavior: an Omnicom Group Company

Marmota is a new topographical augmented reality application being tested for Android phones. With a blend of cartography, computer graphics, and machine vision algorithms, it presents users with information layered over the natural world.

The Fondazione Bruno Kessler website explains:

Simply point your mobile towards the landscape that you are looking at, and a few moments later you will see all the information you desire, such as the profiles of the mountains and the names of peaks/refuges, together with their distances away and  altitudes. A dream for those who find themselves in a more or less unknown location and want to know everything about the scene around them.

Advances in computer vision are making it possible for mobile phones not only to augment reality, but also to intelligently analyze it. Another recent example is Augmented Driving, an iPhone app that detects lanes and vehicles on the road in order to create a more informed driver. With these new tools, it seems there really is more than meets the eye.

[via rww]