Yes, we reached another milestone. Last week we reached the mark of 1000 published layers. We would like to thank all developers who are making this possible and published all their layers over the past year. Unfortunately not everybody can publish the 1000th layer and the lucky one who published it, is SystemK. We talked to Scott Halcomb from SystemK.

Scott, congratulations you’ve published the 1000th layer. Can you tell us something about this layer? Layarで記念撮影’ allows users in Japan to showcase their artistic abilities by placing their own 2D and 3D images into this social layer. By visiting this special website  Japanese users can learn all about how to create 2D and 3D objects specifically for Layar. Step by step guides walk users through the production process and an easy to use uploader lets anyone place their creations into the layer. Initially this layer has been populated by some of the creative characters designed for prefectural institutions around Japan. Visitors to these areas can experience the creativity of local designers by taking pictures along with the famous characters. Ultimately though, ‘Layarで記念撮影’ encourages users to be inventive and design their own characters and works of art. Soon, user generated 2D and 3D experiences could start popping up into the stream of Layar user’s all over the world.

Could you tell us something about the usage of layer in JP?
Layar is being used in all sorts of different ways in Japan. Our tourism layers and several of our discovery layers have been well received. The layer used to debut an album last year was a huge success. We also continue to see steady growth in our layer populated by user generated content.

Any future plans when it comes to layer development?
We are currently testing some fantastic 3D content for a partner in real estate that wants to pre-visualize building construction. Also, we have a layer for enterprise use in the works for a major Japanese gas company.

We’re looking forward to see these layers published.

We would like to thank Scott and SystemK for all their published layers and maybe you’re the developer who publish the 2000th layer.

This week, Walt Disney launched the augmented reality outdoor campaign for the new ‘Prince of Persia’ movie. The campaign is built upon Layar, through a special Prince of Persia layer connected to outdoor posters, in which you can play, win and share.

The layer is created by TAB Worldmedia, the first company that combines outdoor advertising with the possibilities of the Layar platform. We talked to TAB Worldmedia’s founder Remco Vroom about the layer and outdoor advertising.

Remco: “The thing is that when you see the filmposter you want to DO something with it. To stimulate that moment of anticipation, we now offer an extra augmented experience.”

As you are near one of the ‘Prince of Persia’ outdoor posters and open the layer, the beautiful movie-character Tamina speaks to you and explains that you should watch the trailer and enter the augmented reality game to answer 3 questions. If you answer all questions correctly, you earn 50 Movie Minutes.
Remco: “Plus we built in an AR cinema finder, which is very neat considering that we integrated a layer in a layer. Also, we created the option to share the layer via Twitter.”

How did the idea to connect outdoor advertising to Layar originate?
Remco: “I have a background of 14 years in Advertising so when I saw the creative possibilities of Layar I was immediately triggered by it. The step to connect the geo locations of 2 dimensional ads to this new 3 dimensional world on your phone was very obvious. (in retrospect)”

We understood that the ‘Prince of Persia’ is the first step in connecting Augmented Reality to outdoor advertising, created in a limited amount of time. It’s a starting point of working towards richer and richer Augmented Reality experiences in outdoor advertising.

What do you expect in the future of Augmented Reality vs outdoor advertising?
Remco: “Great things will happen soon… that’s all I’m saying ;-)”

Next to this exciting statement, TAB Worldmedia has a message to all developers:
Remco: “If you are interested in entering this market please contact us to find out more about the creative and commercial possibilities. We facilitate this service for media networks like JCDecaux, CBS Outdoor, Hillenaar (Clearchannel), Brouwer & Partners, Librium TV and many others.”

Enough said, it’s time to find a ‘Prince of Persia’ poster in your surroundings: open up the layer -by searching for it- and experience the Prince of Persia yourself. If you’re geographically not able to find the posters, you can launch the layer through the QR code.

Already in 2009 great “seasonal layers” have been developed. For instance, Zehnder communications have developed a great layer especially for the 3-days New Orleans Voodoo (music) Festival. Festival-goers, with Layar-enabled phones, could get information on performances, attractions and services. For easter Marc René Gardeya, from Hoppala, has developed the “Hoppala goes Easter layer”. The layer lets you place 3D easter eggs around the world and leave messages for your friends. You can search for eggs wherever you are. Ochio.nl has developed a special “easter egg search game” layer for The Netherlands. (Here at Layar Headquarters Amsterdam we can’t wait to see all the creative ideas for a “Queensday layer” the 30th of April - which is THE national celebration in the Netherlands).

Why a seasonal layer?

Marc: We’re right at the dawn of that new medium called augmented reality. It is an experience medium. Jeroen: “The seasonal Xmass layar for us actually started as a joke. “wow” it would be kind of cool to have Santa hovering over your house, seemingly useless but fun. Remember this was the first seasonal layar around. After that we had to think of a way to make it possible, even for a layman to geocode the location and to send somebody else a mail “warning” them of a giant Santa over their house. Developing this Layar was very usefull for us to get to know the 3D capabilities better and getting hands on experience in the integration of fixed- and mobile internet. Moreover, it generated quite some demand from a comercial perspective!

What is  (was) the functionality and usage of the layer? Marc: Augmented reality on this medium is so great beause of three things: It combines the real and the virtual, it’s interactive and realtime, and it’s 3D. This is what “Hoppala goes Easter” is about. It combines the real and the virtual - place eggs at your friends place, it’s just that they’re augments. It’s interactive and realtime - place eggs right from your phone, right where you are, and they’re instantly there. And it’s 3D - walk around our exclusively designed eggs. It’s lots of fun! Jeroen: “Actually, this Layar was intended to replace all xmass cards around. They take up valuable natural resources etc. No not really…it was just made for a very small audience. As I see present seasonal layars they attract a bigger audience, also due to the fact that Layar is getting main-stream now.”

Seasonsgreetings

Description: Send your Christmas Greetings in the Muzar Layar. Add  your own Santa Claus POI on the Muzar website
Country: international
Developer: Jeroen Meijer
Developer Company: Muzar.org

WISDOM

Description: SEEDA feat. ILL-BOSSTINO, EMI MARIA; The famous Japanese rapper Seeda’s new album, promoted through Layar. At 3 locations you can listen to one of his new songs.
Geographical spread: Japan
Developer: Scott Halcomb
Developer Company: SystemK

Local Book Search

Description: LibraryThing Local Book Search connects you to the “real” world of bookstores, libraries, festivals, fairs and other book-related venues. You can filter by type of venue and distance. All venues link to LibraryThing Local, where you can find detailed information like address, hours, phone number, wifi availability and upcoming events. Venues can be added and edited with a free membership at LibraryThing.com.
Geographical spread: international
Developer: Michael Bannister
Developer Company: LibraryThing.com

ART - 3D layer

Description: Find museums and art galleries in Spain.
Geographical Spread: Spain
Developer: Pablo Garcia
Developer Company: ELIPSE AD

Gogh-mented reality

Description: Het leven en werk van Van Gogh in Nuenen, Noord-brabant, Nederland
Geographical spread: Nuenen, Netherlands
Developer: Michel Meeuwissen
Developer Company: Vrijetijdshuis Brabant

TweetPhoto

Description: Discover photos uploaded to TweetPhoto!
Geographical spread: international
Developer: Guillermo Proano
Developer Company: GPP Software, LLC

TweetJourney

Description: Create and share your journey based on your geotagged Tweets. http://TweetJourney.com
Country: Denmark, Norway, Sweden
Developer: Fredrik Davidsson
Developer Company: Teknograd AS

Partyagenda

Description: De Nederlandse augmented partyagenda. Wil je weten welk feestjes en in welk club in de buurt van jou zijn? Wij laten je de feestjes zien op de huidige dag. Maar het is ook mogelijk om een aantal dagen vooruit te kijken welke feestjes er komen (tot aan 14 dagen). Bij sommige feestjes zie je ook de flyer die erbij hoort. Zijn er geen feestjes op de jouw geselecteerde dag, dan laten wij de meest recente feestjes zien.
Geographical spread: Netherlands
Developer: Fransjo Leihitu

Delta Odry

Description: Ułatwienie nawigacji po wodach Zalewu Szczecińskiego i okolic. It shows every buoy and many navigation lights on the 10 waterways on this waters. It is designed for sailing on this waters, as a backup for traditional ways of navigation, mostly for smaller boats without built in professional devices.
Geographical spread: Location Odry Delta, Poland
Developer: Grzegorz Motowilczuk
Developer Company: PROINFO Marketing & Consulting

Transport

Description: Encuentre estaciones de metro, tren y parkings.
Geographical spread: Spain
Developer: Pablo Garcia
Developer Company: ELIPSE AD

Hotels & holiday homes

Description: Partner of Booking.com and Belvilla. We are the European leader in online hotel bookings and vacation rentals. Use this layer to find your hotel or vacation rental. From hotels and holiday homes, log cabins to lakefront and oceanfront villas to ski slope condos - there’s so much to choose from: more than 57.000 bookable hotels online and we offer over 15,000 online bookable holiday homes in 16 European countries.
Geographical spread: international
Developer: Tom Schuyten
Developer Company: T-Network.BE

Van der Valk Hotels

Description: Van der Valk has over 80 hotels in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Spain, Bonaire and the United States.
Geographical spread: Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Spain, Bonaire and the United States
Developer: Fons Sonnemans
Developer Company: Objectmap BV

Maya

Description: A message for you. Maya, 2109: http://loveletterstothefuture.blogspot.com/. When key words from the location clues were entered in order , they unlocked the last video! Thanks to everyone that helped unlock them - watch Maya’s final transmission on the site. Let’s hope we can change our world for the better, for our grandchildren - and Maya’s - sake…
Geographincal spread: international
Developer: Timen Rienstra
Developer Company: Triangle Studios

Climate Action Map

Description: ClimateActionMap.org. On this Layar you will be able to learn about initiatives that cities and municipalities around the world are implementing to reduce their climate impact. This Layar will help educate people, companies and governments of the many innovative solutions that are being implemented at the local level to reduce CO2 emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
Geographical spread: US and Denmark (live at COP15 from 7-18 Dec)
Developer: Mathijs Gajentaan
Developer Company: Winvolve

Copenhagen Layer

Description: See Climate and Environmental facts around Copenhagen
Geographical spread: Denmark
Status: Pending Review
Developer: Johannes la Poutre
Developer Company: Squio

Antarctica - International Reserach Stations

Description: The ‘coolest’ Layar possible: Antarctica Research Stations. Discover and Find all current Research Stations on Antarctica.
Country Code: Antartica
Developer Name: Mathijs Gajentaan
Developer Company: Winvolve

AR map

Description: powered by openstreetmap
Geographical spread: international
Developer: Sascha Hendel
Developer Company: archINFORM

más Vigo

Description: La primera aplicación de realidad aumentada para la ciudad de Vigo. Con miles de empresas y servicios localizables rápidamente.
Geographical spread: Vigo, Spain
Developer: Roberto Vidal
Developer Company: MASVIGO

Portal inmobiliario

Description: Oferta inmobiliaria de Bankinter
Geographical spread: Spain
Developer: José Millares change
Developer Company: SIGNO Ingeniería del Territorio

food n’ fashion

Description: this is layer about food and fashion in Bandung Indonesia
Geographical spread: Indonesia
Developer: V Information Project
Developer Company: V Information Project

Tendumi Campings

Description: Guía de campings en España.
Geographical spread: Spain
Developer: Gorka Esnal
Developer Company: Tendumi

Restaurant

Description: Encuentre restaurantes, hamburgueserías, pizzerías, bocaterías cerca de su posición.
Geographical spread: Spain
Developer: Pablo Garcia
Developer Company: ELIPSE AD

TTC - Toronto Bus planner

Description: This layer shows the closest TTC subway & bus stops around you. For each bus stop it will show you the next busses. including destination and route information.
Country: Toronto, Canada
Developer: Andree Toonk
Developer company: Created by NetKnowledge.ca for Toronto

Happy Meet

Description: Flirt & chat with people around you
Geographical spread: international
Developer: Pablo Garcia
Developer Company: ELIPSE AD

Concello de Corcubión

Description: Servizos, elementos turísticos e outros puntos de interese en Corcubión.
Geographical spread: Corcubión, North West Spain
Developer Name: Francisco Xavier Sotelo
Developer Company: Sixtema

Mapa Cultural Galego

Description: Censo de infraestruturas culturais no territorio galego. Cultural locations in Galicia, Spain
Geographical spread: Galicia, Spain
Developer Name: Francisco Xavier Sotelo
Developer Company: Sixtema

AusWiki

Description: Shows wikipedia entries for points of interest around australia. Also allows users to view images and leave feedback.
Geographical spread: Australia
Developer: James Cole
Developer Company: Pallian

Stadtausstellung.at

Description: Firmen und Freiberufler aller Sparten aus der Umgebung
Gegraphical spread: Astria
Developer: Stefan Grosz
Developer Company: stadtausstellung

Tuotteet ja palvelut

Description: Fonecta löytää tuotteet ja palvelut läheltäsi
Geographical spread: Finland
Developer: Teemu Hänninen
Developer Company: Fonecta Oy

Chain of favours

Description: Exchange things and services or sell them.
Geographical spread: international
Developer: Pablo Garcia
Developer Company: ELIPSE AD

Reklamy 3D

Description: Możliwości platformy Layar w wykonaniu proinfo-reality.pl
Country: Poland
Developer: Grzegorz Motowilczuk
Developer Company: PROINFO Marketing & Consulting

Dallas Area Sports Fields

Description: Provides a detailed layout of the various public sports fields available in the Dallas area.
Geographical spread: Russell Creek Park, Plano, Dallas, US
Developer: Rohit Gupta
Developer Company: Quasar Solution

We just heard that System K in Japan has launched a very cool campaign with the wellknown japanese hip-hop artist SEEDA.

Seeda will release a new single next week. System K collaborated with him to create a promotional layer. In the week leading up to the CD release fans can visit major locations around Japan (Tokyo Tower, Kobe Mosiac, Sapporo Clock Tower). When fans get close to these wellknown landmarks in Japan, the layer will autotrigger an audio sample of the new single Wisdom. Layar users are the first to hear the new track and are also treated with a special video message from Seeda that is personalized for each location.

Autotriggered actions associated with objects is a feature that is supported by Layar Reality Browser 3.0. Any developer can add an autotrigger to an object. Developers can customize the range (when does the autotrigger need to be activitated) and the action can be customized (play audio, play video, open website, etc). It’s very exciting to see this feature of our platform being used in such a creative way.

So if you are in Japan just search for SEEDA in the Layar Browser and you will find the special promotion layer.