Awhile back I wrote a piece on Augmented Reality and hypothesized on various application I could see coming the in the future. One of those application was being able to see new building design at the actual construction site.  Well, Layer has released 3.0 and what do they have as the first bit of eye candy? Yup.  A new design by MVRDV of an interesting building called ‘Market Hall’ that is coming to Rotterdam in 2014.  Although the rendering of the building is not very good, that is clearly a limitation of software only 3D rendering.  In time, both hardware and software limitation will diminish providing better rendering. Layer also showed a whole class of AR possibilities I did not think about. Historic figures placed within the historic site.  I love the Beatles example they provided. But I can think of other things.  How about historic building that not longer exist.  Men and battlements on the great battlefields. Or, how about looking upon a field or garden and seeing it in a different season then what is current.

Whats new about Layar 3.0 is personal layers. Somewhat like what Google Earth has. I’m not sure how Public Layar discovery is going to work, but I would imagine Public Maps (that are within range) would show up as a list as well as be searchable. Keep in mind there will be PLENTY of situation were you will have Layer fighting for the same physical space.

Layar works with the iPhone and Android.

I’m still working on the article for iPhoneLife on Augmented Reality, so you can be sure I will take what I saw here and extend it even further.  In fact, I’m going to a meet and great event tonight in SF hosting by the good people from Layer as a pre-party to the ARworkshop this weekend.  Should make for an interesting conversation. 🙂