Wikitude App on iPhone
This technology can be used in your App to give any variety of information to a user about your venue, location or items around them. In most Augmented Reality (AR) applications, the real-world view from the device's camera is layered with information or other graphics. In the Wikitude App above, the user is looking at Lake Helen, FL and the app is pulling information from Wikipedia about the Lake, giving them an information layer over the real world view of what they're looking at.
The technology has been around for quite some time, but only recently made its way on to mobile platforms thanks to the popularity of smartphones like the iPhone and Android phones on the market today. For common examples you may be used to, simply watch and American football game on TV. The HUD display of scores, the yellow line marking a first down and many other information giving displays are examples of augmented reality.
Another example, in which reality is actually diminished would be when brand names are censored in music videos to avoid infringements, or when videos are censored on variety shows. Pretty much any time a graphic, logo or anything is added to or modified in a digital view of reality, you're looking at AR technology.
Depending on your business, there are a variety of ways you can use AR technology. A hotel in a historic area may use an App to help people find points of interest in and around the hotel. Did a famous person stay in a particular room? If the room is open, a smartphone user could use their phone to view the room, and watch that person doing something they may have done in the room in "real time".
