Upside Learning is thrilled to launch Pune Layar – an augmented reality application for mobile phones that will let users find significant landmarks in and around Pune city. Currently available for mobile devices that run Android version 1.5 and above or the Apple iPhone 3GS, this is the first layer made specifically for any Indian city.
Layar is an augmented reality browser that helps users interact with their location using their phones and receive value added information. Upside Learning has constantly strived to address the multifarious platforms in the technology domain, mobile being one of the most important ones. It is this very commitment, backed by support of its Innovation team that has lead to the development of the Pune Layar.
The Pune Layar allows users to experience an innovative way to explore the city using their mobile phones by helping them find significant landmarks like museums, forts, monuments; buildings & landmarks; restaurants; places of worship and much more. Users can learn about the Point of Interest’s rating (popularity among users), its distance from the user’s current location, time of opening/closing (if applicable) and entry fee (if applicable). These Points of Interests (POIs) are nothing but various landmarks that hold some significance for tourists and the general public alike. Pune Layar connects the various POIs to their respective Wikipedia pages and websites (if available), allowing users to access more information. It also provides users directions to the POI from their current location using Google Maps, just at the click of a button.
Besides this, to help this application evolve and include more POIs over a period of time, Upside Learning has also created a facility for users to add their favorite landmark through a webpage
(http://www.upsidelayar.com/process/addpoi.php), using a smart-phone or a desktop computer. Users can also give their feedback through a Feedback page (http://www.upsidelayar.com/process/feedback.php). This will help the company to further enhance the performance of the application as per users’ suggestions.
One of the important aspects of this application is that it is free .*using the Layar application may incur data charges, please check with your provider*. By no means will the company charge users for searching and locating places, reading information, adding POIs etc. The use of Layar or other Augmented Reality application in the field of eLearning could be profound. Upside Learning’s focus is to use Layar in learning solutions and fully explore its application in performance support solutions.
“We are quite excited to share this application with the world. Developed first time for an Indian city it provides an opportunity to experience Pune city just like a local.”, said Amit Garg, Director of Content Solutions at Upside Learning.
This is our first tryst with Layar and although, initially, the application seems high-ended demanding a lot of programming efforts, its development has actually been made a lot simpler by the Layar community. We hope that the Pune Layar helps people get timely and accurate information thereby making the exploration experience more enjoyable and convenient.
