Don't jump to any conclusions about the title: Bionic Eye is simply the name of a sweet new app for the iPhone 3GS. A few weeks ago, I talked about augmented reality in the Yelp app, but pointed out it was buggy and didn't work very well. I downloaded Bionic Eye today and I'm pretty impressed with the results:
First of all, you need an iPhone 3GS to utilize this app - the compass is required to make all this "augmented reality" stuff actually work. Luckily for this post, I own a 3GS. According to the app, Bionic Eye supports these points of interests:
Fast Food:
- Mcdonald's
- Subway
- Taco Bell
- Burger King
- KFC
- Wendy's
- Johnny Rockets
- Arby's
- Carl's Jr
- Panda Express
- Hardee's
- Fatburger
Restaurants:
- Domino's Pizza
- Pizza Hut
- Hooters
- The Cheesecake Factory
- Hard Rock Cafe
- Chili's Grill & Bar
Coffer, Pastry & Ice Cream:
- Starbucks
- Ben & Jerry's
- Krispy Kreme Doughnuts
Leisure:
- WiFi
- Tourist Locations
- Apple Store
Accomodation:
- Holiday Inn
- Best Western
- Marriott
- Hilton
- Ramada
- Super 8
- Motel 6
Subway Stations:
- New York Subway
- Washington Metro
- Chicago L Rapid Transit
As you can see in the picture, the restaurant and fast food POIs work pretty well. I had a problem downloading the Chicago L stations for $2.99, so I have to call Apple to figure that out. You can hold your phone up to look around to find the nearest POI, or hold it parallel to the ground to get an easy listing of things nearby. So far so good, and it's definitely more refined than Yelp's prototype, "Monicle."
6 comments:
speaking of bionic eyes. they invented one "today"
http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/24/mit-researchers-tout-progress-with-retinal-implant-yes-it-com/
Not to sound dense (but to sound dense anyway despite my disclaimer) but can one of you tech nerds please explain to me what augmented reality even means?
Now that I know what augmented reality is (thanks to MLR), it's reminding me of this post-modern sci-fi book I read in college where a girl has anxiety attacks when exposed to corporate brands. It's kind of how that screen shot makes me feel right now.
@makens is it sad that I also actually read Pattern Recognition for summer reading before freshman year? and so i know exactly what youre talking about...
No... in fact, it makes me feel a little better about my inferior, non-Ivy education.
That book sucked
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