Augmented Reality Tweeting

Flat Tweeting is so Q1 2009. With the advent of the iPhone 3GS and the various new features like tying the camera to the GPS system and compass, clever bods have been looking at ways of producing simple Augmented Reality apps.

Augmented Reality overlays textual information and pictures over a real-world view of your surroundings, based on what the iPhone 3Gs’ camera can see.

A new Twitter client makes eye-popping use of the technology and though it uses several parts of the 3GS development system that haven’t “officially” been unlocked by Apple yet,  iPhone app TwittAround can’t really be described in words as adequately as it can in this amazing demonstration video. Take a look:

With TwittAround, you can scan around the landscape and actually see where Tweets are coming from. Though it’s a little bit gimmicky, it does demonstrate how AR technology could be used to turn the 3GS into a tidy version of those AR Sunglasses from William Gibson’s sublime novel Virtual Light.

It’s not the only early AR application to hit the iPhone 3GS either: another Twitter client, this time the Twitter Search Client Tweetmondo, is reportedly being spliced with AR technology developed by Augmented Reality service providers Layar. Tweetmondo AR will allow iPhone 3GS geeks to get instant AR information on local amenities, businesses, even the best place to grab a pint and a pie.

Currently being tested on smartphones running Google’s Android technology, Tweetmondo and Layar should make for an exciting team-up giving Apple even more incentive to push the AR capabilities of the iPhone in order to compete with Google.

Whatever happens with both sets of technology, one thing’s for sure, Jordan won’t be the only person interested in an Augmented Reality from now on.