*Got some guidebook/AR crossover, urban-informatics action here. Looks like a significant development.
http://www.mobilizy.com/enaugmenting-travelers-lonely-planet-mobilizy
Augmenting Travelers – Lonely Planet and Mobilizy
December 9th, 2009
Lonely Planet, the world’s favorite travel company, has teamed up with mobile augmented reality pioneer Mobilizy to bring a world-class mobile AR experience to their renowned travel guides. Whether you are a seasoned traveller or fledgling explorer, Lonely Planet Compass guides provide expert recommendation and useful information to help you navigate city locations.
Lonely Planet Compass guides offer a unique augmented reality experience to extend your travel adventure with useful information about your surroundings, nearby landmarks, and other points of interest by overlaying information on the real-time camera view of your Android phone.
Looking for the ultimate guidebook? One you can slip in your pocket? Lonely Planet’s Compass Guides for Android give you interactive, personalized and fully searchable mobile access to Lonely Planet’s best-selling travel content.
Currently there are 10 Lonely Planet Compass Guides enhanced with Wikitude AR available for the Android market in the US: Boston, Chicago, Miami, New Orleans, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Seattle and Washington D.C. More titles are coming soon. (((It's gonna get really humiliating when you are a native of, like, Miami, and some AR-geek clown with a mobile is having a much better time in your own town than you are.)))
Features of the Lonely Planet guides enhanced with augmented reality include:
Enabled with GPS so you can see your current location and plot itineraries on dynamic maps;
Augmented reality camera-view to visualize data overlays of Lonely Planet recommended points of interest
Hundreds of listings for places of interest – bars, clubs, restaurants and more – search by category, distance, or by address ((("Is this Miami? Must be, look at these listings for gay discos and pharmaceutical-grade cocaine.")))
Helpful information on the city, its history and events and more...
