TonchiDot/Sekai Camera (Real World Tagging)

Check out this presentation video from TechCrunch 50 on the Sekai Camera  .

Its an iPhone app (prototype for the moment) that tags “the real world”. For example, if you are at a certain spot (say the corner of Pratt and Charles Streets), you can point your iPhone at a restaurant which will show a tag with a link to the menu. Still don't know what I mean? Its kind of like the glasses Rowdy Roddy Piper wore in “They Live”, but instead of seeing aliens you’re seeing information balloons and tags.

Or you can see tags specifically from your friends eg-“You gotta try the burgers here”. If you point at a subway station sign you can see the subway schedule. It works by finding your location (presumably using the iPhones GPS), then uses image recognition to find and display the tags (which can be visual or audio).

Imagine visiting a historic spot or museum, holding up your iPhone and getting visual and audio information on the area/artwork you’re looking at. Or possibly going to another country (say, Japan) holding up your iPhone to the street corner you’re at and having everything your looking at translated- or at least recommendations (in English) for tourist spots/restaurants/etc. You would think spots could potentially become jumbled with tags which is why they have series of filters so you can just see certain types of tags.

In addition to general information and tags from friends, it can be used by companies for the next generation of Mobile Marketing. Greenbean 2.0 perhaps? The Sekai Camera is still in the prototype stage but could be an extremely cool app once its released. Its just another example of people finding creative ways to use the features available in the iPhone.