Wikipedia + Geotag = Cyclopedia vs Wikitude

A few weeks back, I came across the Cyclopedia and Wikitude apps in iTunes Store and clicked buy (Cyclopedia costs $1.99 whereas Wikitude is FREE) the moment I read their description and saw the screenshots. Well, it took me this long to try out the apps and share the goodness because of the poor performance of my iPhone3G which was running on iOS4.1! Anyway, let’s put the past aside (Yes! I am a iPhone4 user now!) and focus on the apps, shall we?

Cyclopedia is an iPhone app that uses iPhone’s inbuilt compass and GPS to trigger the Wikipedia entries that are geotagged and display on the user’s iPhone screen.

To add GPS coord to a wiki page, use the template provided by Wikipedia and it’s as easy as that to get the information to be displayed using the Cyclopedia app!

Here’s a video that demonstrates what this app does…

Here are 3 crucial enhancements (i.e. in my opinion as a user) I am proposing:-

1. App could push notifications to user on nearby mostly visited/viewed places of interest
2. Introduce more reliable sources instead of just source from Wikipedia. User could then select his/her choice of source of information.
3. Go 2-way instead of 1-way or static by allowing users to add locations/information/related media that do not exist on any of the sources.

With these enhancements, this app will certainly allow collaborative learning to take place anytime, anywhere.

Wikitude is an iPhone, Android and Nokia app that uses the phone’s inbuilt compass and GPS to trigger information from various sources including Wikipedia that are geotagged and display on the user’s iPhone screen.

Wikitude interface is not as friendly compared to Cyclopedia but has a lot more data and is more accessible for users to add data to (talking about 2-way and collaborative learning).  Wikitude lets anyone add POI (Points of Interest) to the Augmented Reality app through a dead-simple interface at Wikitude.me (I added my workplace!) and it’s as easy as A-B-C!

Watch how to do it here…

It’s because Wikitude is open to user generated content that I find it the most feasible for collaborative mLearning.

Hopefully the technology for mobile AR apps will continue to improve and our want/need list increases accordingly 🙂

I ♥ London but…

the transportation is crazy!

They have wayyyy too many lines and stations and it makes me wonder why do we complain about the peak hour rush at our MRT stations when it’s seriously better than my experience with London’s underground service. If I had to quote one incident, it will be what took place on Day 2. It was a Sunday and we were off to watch The Lion King musical. We had to alight at Covent Garden station and there was a major crowd at 4pm on a Sunday (but then again, London is perpetually crowded)! We were desperately gasping for air due to the poor ventilation in the train and at the station. To make things worse, to get out of the station, we needed to take a lift which had a snaking queue. In order not to waste time, we decided to head for the stairs just to realize we had to climb 193 steps!!! In short, the whole journey to the theater was a bad one and the 1st 15mins of the musical was gone in trying to fix my mental state.

The following days were not getting any better since we had to keep switching between the overground and underground services several times to get to each destination. Lots of time were spent in reading the 2D maps, planning routes, asking for directions, finding the nearest stations, checking the status of the services, etc. It was times like these that I wished I had a data connection so that I could just use the ‘Nearest Tube‘ app on my iphone!

Hope to spot a similar (free) app in iTunes store for SBS and SMRT services soon…

P.S. I am in the midst of compiling my fav AR iPhone apps. Look out for the page 😉

This is home truly, where I know I must be…

Happy 45th Birthday, Singapore!

I like the tiny AR bit injected into the NDP OnTheGo app! A gd start, ya’ll!

For those of you who can’t get the app working on your iPhones just like how it didn’t work on mine *sob sob*, watch this short clipping on what it’s expected to do…

ARE you ready for Prezi?

A recent team building retreat (coined as Rethink, Relook & Revise by boss) session provided me a golden opportunity to present on the topic “Augmented Reality in Education (ARE)” to my team members. After tons of planning, I decided to ditch PPT for Prezi. During the preparation phase, I did re-visit PPT on 2 occasions, but eventually I managed to pull through with Prezi!

Summary: Introduction on AR in Education +Xtranormal used for a light-hearted video + Prezi as the presentation tool! Phew! It was a tough thing to do but I’m glad I managed to present it as 1-piece 🙂

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Goggling not Googling

The marriage between Goggles & AR will be a match made in heaven! If Goggles allows us to go back in time and view the historical images and information of a landmark or object with the aid of AR, it will be phenomenal!

Moo Vision

Imagine unlocking different levels/ranks and earning points (B & J pints? 😉 ) as you share/contribute information using an AR app… good to have in education!

Did I just hear you say ‘Augmented Reality’?

I created a small introduction video to add some humor to a presentation on AR for coming Friday’s meeting. It’s still WIP. Will try to upload the 10-min presentation stuff to this space when it’s more or less concrete.

But in the meantime, this video should be an introduction to yet another interesting tool. Try Xtranormal 😉

TGIF… Have fun folks!

Augmented Reality (AR): An Unexplored Domain

Wouldn’t it be great to have interactive 3D objects appear from the pages of our textbooks?

Personally, I know AR is going to “explode” one very fine day. When? Where? How? I am not too sure but mark my words 🙂

Let me share with you what my group of friends and I have achieved in this arena…

http://madnug.wordpress.com

Want to explore on your own? Google is your friend 🙂 (hint: ARToolKit)