Layar Revamps AR Platform

Augmented reality (AR) firm Layar has announced Layar Vision, a platform that enables mobile phones to recognise real world objects and display digital content on top of them. It then allows the user to interact with the digital layer. 

Layar Vision is an extension of the existing Layar platform. It can instantly detect up to 50 target objects, which can be combined with location-based layers to create experiences that are more immersive than AR up to this point, claims the company. 

“We are really excited about this release. Mobile devices can finally see,” says Maarten Lens-FitzGerald, Layar co-founder and general manager. “By adding Layar Vision we are taking an important step towards making augmented reality more effective. With Layar Vision we enable developers to create easy and fast user experiences. It quickly detects multiple enriched objects around a user at any given time.”

The Layar platform is already in use by over 10,000 developers, and the AR app is installed on 10m mobile devices, according to the companys numbers. 

As part of the Layar Vision launch, the company has opened a $55,000 competition called the Layar Creation Challenge. The contest will reward 10 developers who come up with the best concepts for using Layar Vision. 

The new features introduced with Layar Vision will be added to the Layar Player app for iOS and Android in Q4 of this year. This will allow developers to incorporate Layar Vision features into consumer apps. 

Details of both the Layar Creation Challenge and Layar Vision can be found at the Layar website.