You've probably heard of 'augmented reality' somewhere by now. If you haven't, augmented reality is the concept of displaying information on a 'real world' view which is seen through the lens on the iPhone.
However, only those with an iPhone 3GS will be able to use these augmented reality apps, since they require the use of a digital compass, GPS, and Internet connection.
There have been several augmented reality apps that have gotten noticed (though not publicly available yet) with the help of the Internet, and includes finding neighboring twitterers (TwittARound), finding the nearest NY subway (Nearest Tube, shown at bottom), and now using facial recognition to pull up web profiles (Augmented ID, concept video at top).
It seems that the developers that are creating these augmented reality apps are actually tapping into an unauthorized tool, called "camera viewer", in order to get the functions to make such apps exist and actually work.
According to the developer for Acrossair (Nearest Tube), Apple has told them that they will approve the app once iPhone OS 3.1 is out, which should be available around September.
So it seems that we won't be getting a taste of these super cool augmented reality apps until at least over a month! But they could be very well worth the wait.
