Layar announces Layar Stream: search and discovery for Augmented Reality

Amsterdam, May 7th 2010. Today Layar announces Layar Stream, revealing immediately what Augmented Reality (AR) content is available around you. In the new medium of Augmented Reality there are many great experiences waiting to be discovered. With the continuously increasing amount of AR content, discovery becomes a challenge. Layar Stream solves this.

Layar Stream generates a stream out of the 1.2 million augmented objects served daily by Layar. The ranking is based on a proprietary algorithm using contextual elements like location, usage and popularity of content in all published layers. Layar Stream holds information about the type of available content and whether it contains 3D objects, images, video or audio. Users can optimize their stream by filtering on keywords, categories and distance.

The Layar Stream is viewable without having to hold the phone up and moving it around. This enables easy discovery of what is around you in everyday situations. When selecting a specific object the layer opens and can be seen in the Augmented Reality view.

Raimo van der Klein, CEO: “Layar Stream is the necessary building block to make Augmented Reality part of every day life. There is a whole augmented world out there that is waiting to be discovered. You just need to tap into Layar Stream”

Today all layer publishers are invited to have their Augmented Reality content indexed by Layar Stream. Layar Stream will be available in the next release of the Layar Reality Browser, to be launched later this month on Android with iPhone following soon after.

About Layar
Layar is the world’s leading Augmented Reality Platform on mobile. The Layar Reality Browser has more than 1.6 million users and serves 1.2 million augmented objects every day. The browser comes pre-installed on tens of millions of phones from leading handset manufacturers and carriers by the end of the year. Over 600 layers are published on the Layar Platform with over 2000 in development. These layers are developed by the global community of 3000 Layar publishers and producers, and by leading brands and agencies. Layar is located in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The company is VC funded and has 32 employees.

The free Layar Reality Browser is available on Android devices and iPhone 3GS. The Layar Platform is available for anyone to create their own Augmented Reality experiences on.

Layar, see the world
http://www.layar.com