The what? Yeah, that’s what we thought at first too.

As we mentioned yesterday, AR icon Bruce Sterling dropped in on Layar HQ to tell us all about the class he’s going to be teaching this summer on the subject. During our Q&A, he answered a question about the best medium for augmented reality, and his answer was, well, surprising.

He brings up the idea of the “uni-modern uni-medium” in which there is no real difference between one medium or the next, it’s just all one big blended medium.

It’s a really fascinating concept, so have a look at his answer in the video below!

UNTETHER.tv is an Internet video series hosted by entrepreneur and mobile industry expert Rob Woodbridge. The thesis of the series, Woodbridge says, is to discuss the new business environment created by the burgeoning mobile industry and to hear the stories from the people on the front lines.

The series features interviews with notable mobile industry figures, and recently our very own Maarten Lens-FitzGerald was Rob’s guest for a discussion about Layar and augmented reality. In this interview, which clocks in at just under an hour, Maarten discusses how Layar got off the ground and how we’ve reached where we are today.

But more importantly, Maarten explains where Layar is headed and how augmented reality itself will impact the world in the near future. So take a look at the embedded video below, or if you’d rather kick back with your eyes closed you can also download and audio version of the interview for your listening pleasure.

Enjoy!

Back in February we told you about the 3D Augmented Office layer - a virtual representation of the Layar office in which you can walk around and explore. We featured the layer at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, and attendees at our daily meetups learned about Layar through augmented reality.

If you weren’t at MWC and haven’t had a chance to check out the layer, here’s a look at what it’s all about. Just watch the quick video below to be introduced to the 3D Augmented Office.

Layar has an extremely diverse community of developers creating augmented reality experiences of all shapes and sizes. To give you an idea of the different things that can be done on the Layar platform, we’ve put together a set of case studies featuring some truly unique examples.

Below are five case studies that show the flexibility and capabilities of the Layar platform and our outstanding community of developers. For each, click the “Case Study PDF” link to view the case study in full.

Layar Augmented Office - Case Study PDF
The Layar Augmented Office is an interactive 3D model that you can literally walk into and access information about the company, layer content, job openings and more.

streetARt - Case Study PDF
streetARt is an iPhone application that displays the public art, graffiti, tags and other forms of street art in your neighborhood. The third-party app uses the Layar Player to embed an Augmented Reality view, but it can also be viewed within the Layar app.

Exile on Your Street - Case Study PDF
Exile on Your Street is the official layer for The Rolling Stones, in promotion of the 2010 Exile on Main Street (Rarities Edition) album. Create and add posters in AR, listen to audio tracks, watch videos, purchase music on iTunes, and more.

The Invisible Artist - Case Study PDF
The Invisible Artist is a 3D Augmented Reality guide to 10 of London’s top contemporary art museums.

UAR - Case Study PDF
UAR (Urban Augmented Reality) displays images and 3D models of the past, future and “what might have been” for architecture in the Netherlands.

You can also find these case studies at any time on our Examples page.

It was over a year an a half ago when Layar co-founder Maarten Lens-FitzGerald posted a video to his YouTube account revealing details of the world’s first augmented reality browser. Today that video has been viewed more than one million times, so we thought it was time to refresh it for 2011.

Today, we are very excited to introduce a brand-spankin’ new video that expresses the vision and philosophy of Layar. Produced by the wonderful people at Campfire Creative, the video below features interviews with the Layar co-founders as well as examples of the impactful augmented reality experiences that live on our platform today.

Some of the really great layers featured in this beautifully-made video include:

• Tweeps Around, by TABworldmedia


• Historic Market Street, by bigBigBang


• In-N-Out Locations, by Dutchcowboy & AugmentReality


• Woomba Mania, by Superimpose / Hoppala


• Hostage Ware Shop, by HPSC

Please feel free to spread this video around, embed it on your website or share a link with your friends on Facebook, Twitter or other social networks. If you would like to download the video, simply follow this link (Right click and choose “Save Link As”).