Real Estate technology is advancing at the speed of light! Check out how this new tool is advancing our industry!
To most, when one thinks of Augmented Reality (AR) there is almost always a reference back to the popular Terminator movie of 1984. This all changed when a Dutch company founded in 2009 and based out of Amsterdam, Layar introduced a nifty application for our mobile devices. The application intelligently creates what it calls a “Layer” of virtual information and icons on top of the real world images picked-up by your devices camera. Since then the popularity of AR has been steadily increasing prompting a flurry of customized “Layars” that consumers can launch to locate their favorite grocery stores, gas stations, burger joints, tourist spots and even apartments for rent or real estate for sale. The list goes on and even includes criminal activity relative to where you are at thanks to the GPS feature in your phone. I once thought that I lived in a pretty safe neighborhood until I peeked through the rabbit hole that is my phones AR Layer.
Once you get over the novelty of the idea you will soon realize that there is still much more work to be done here before it becomes a ubiquitous necessity like (Internet + Google). Speaking of Google, 
they plan to release “Google Goggles” in the first half of 2012 which is an AR platform developed on Android and built into a pair of sunglasses. It’s conceivable that our phones will soon be paired up with designer shades to provide that always on and everywhere capability. As the AR landscape becomes increasingly crowded you will require a digital assistant like Apple’s SIRI to help you sort through all of the information presented to you in your AR display. These two technologies combined will make finding real estate a breeze. This year you will tell your digital assistant what type of listings you are interested in and simply drive through an area that you like to see what pops up on your AR display. If you see something you like you will be able to run through the property’s AR Open House Tour.
Contributor, designer & admin for JohnHart Gazette.
