Well almost…
Layar, an “Augmented reality browser,” was presented this past weekend at the Mobile 2.0 Europe conference in Spain.
The application allows users to view an enhanced version of reality through the lens of their mobile phone’s camera. It is currently available in the Netherlands, on Android phones.
Layers, or “Layars” of information integrated with the application are displayed on top of whatever appears in the camera’s viewfinder. In real time. With full dimensionality provided by a built in magnetometer, GPS, and a display that even shows what’s behind you.
Right now, most data/map mashups rely on search parameters input by users and display places using year-old aerial or street-level photography.
Layar collapses those distances completely. No searching, only finding. No snapshots of the past, only now.
At the moment, real estate search is abstracted from reality – even in an advanced form like the Zillow iPhone app. With something like Layar in the palm of your hand, searching becomes more immediate. You or I could look at a neighborhood through the lens of our mobile phone and see data that tells the story of every home we point at.
This is the stuff of great stoner conversation. But it is also, mark my words, exactly where real estate search is headed.
The team behind Layar says they will be in the U.S. and on the iPhone by this fall.
If you think this is far-fetched, ask yourself if, 5 years ago:
- Your “cell phone” could nearly replace your personal computer
- You could “walk down the street” using something like Google Street View
- You’d run GPS-enhanced real estate searches from the palm of your hand
It is only a matter of time before the phenomenon many technologists call the “ambient web” becomes something we take for granted.
I wonder, will the MLSs in my market allow me to co-mingle listings in my mind? Will Google scrape my imagination?
Check out a Layar video demo below:
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Fun to look at. When people develop this stuff do they ever consult with people in the industry?
It seems that the developers believe that there is a need for this stuff.
The first thing I see a huge security issue for the homeowner.
@Kevin Sometimes developers do not consult people. We’ve seen this often in real estate where developers build solutions to false problems and sell them to brokers by way of slick marketing.
This is different. Search in real estate has been the same forever. Granted a few APi’s here and a few mashups there, but overall, search is about the sames as it has been for years. This is going to shake that tree up and finally create some new fruit.
Security issues? We’ll see. For every issue, there is a cure.
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Excellent blogpost.
“At the moment, real estate search is abstracted from reality – even in an advanced form like the Zillow iPhone app. With something like Layar in the palm of your hand, searching becomes more immediate. You or I could look at a neighborhood through the lens of our mobile phone and see data that tells the story of every home we point at.”
This is exactly what we want to accomplish!
Great article that shows the future of RE search. I personally think augmented reality is very interesting and it’s worth looking at other uses of it online (just do a search and you’ll find lots of video examples).
The other takeaway I want to share is that mobile apps need to be cloud-based so they can run in a variety of mobile broswers, like Layar. With cloud-based apps, the functionality can automatically be adjusted based on browser, phone, screen, etc so the app reaches more users. The focus on mobile apps these days seems to be around downloadable apps but the true future needs to be cloud-based apps that lets agent/broker’s reach their diverse user base (i.e. any handset).
[...] It’s stuff like this and nascent “augmented reality” technologies like Layar and Wikitude that make me certain we are far from done with online real estate search [...]