Augmented Reality (AR) is cutting-edge technology that lets you see a digitally enhanced view of real world and connecting you with more meaningful content in your everyday life. Using a camera or sensors in a smartphone or tablet, Augmented Reality adds layers of digital information such as videos, photos, sounds, directly on top of items in the world around us. Though the Augmented Reality concept is known to us, but there are many people who wish to get their hands on and see how it actually works. So, here’s a list of top 10 best Augmented Reality (AR) apps compatible with Android and iOS platforms.

1) Google Sky Map

Platform- Android

Imagine yourself in A beautiful starry night, we all love admiring the stars and try spotting out constellations,just to know which one is it. This application is for that hidden scientist that resides in us. Once you spot a constellation, all you need to do is just hold your smartphone camera facing the sky and the Google Sky Map app will provide you the information about that constellation. And hey this app is not only restricted to pointing out constellations, point anywhere in the sky and you will learn about it.

2) Augmented Car Finder



Platform- iOS

Suppose you are busy shopping in a crowded area, and an emergency occurs, you need to rush home but you forget where you’ve parked your car, A panicked confused situation! isn’t it? With the launch of the Augmented Car Finder app you don’t need to worry on to recollect where you’ve parked your car. All you need to do is just hold the camera of your iPhone around the place and the app will provide directions to help you reach your car, it also provides the street name and address closest to where you’ve parked your car. This iPhone app is a great help when your in a hurry.

3) TagWhat



Platform: Android & iOS

This application is specially for all travel freaks out there. We all like to travel and explore different places, We come across new places, landmarks and things which we have little or no information about, and then pulling out brochures and learning about these places is a rather boring job. Once you launch the TagWhat app, with the help of the Camera and GPS it pulls out from the web the information about the various landmarks you encounter.

4) SpotCrime

Platform: iOS

Crime and Tragedies strike without a warning. The SpotCrime app is an iOS app, which helps us to keep a track of crimes happening around us or anywhere around the streets. With the help of GPS, the app tells us whether the route which we are travelling in is safe or no. This iOS app also shows us the criminal records with their respective icons.

5) Wikitude World Browser



Platform: Android, iOS and Other platforms such as Blackberry, Bada, Windows Phone

Your smartphone just got smarter, Awarded as the best augmented reality app in the year 2009,2010,2011, The Wikitude World Browser is an Augmented Reality Encyclopedia, The best part about this app is that it is available for most of the popular smart phone Operating systems used now-a-days. You can get information of your surroundings be it ATM’s, Hotels, Landmarks or Restaurants. All you need to do is just use your smartphone camera to browse your surroundings and you’ll be provided with the information.

6) iOnRoad Augmented Driving

Platform: Android & iOS

Awarded as the best smartphone app of 2011,This smart phone app is specially designed for road safety, on roadtrips it prevents our vehicle from preventing it from collisions on the road. Road accidents are nothing new to us, there are several major road accidents happening every year around the world. The iOnRoad Augmented Driving app uses smart phone camera, GPS or other sensors to detect moving off the road or to know whether we are coming close to another vehicle by generating an audio-visual warning. All you have to do is simply place ur smartphone device on the windshield and iOnRoad starts automatically as we move. It also helps us when it comes to parking, as it helps us reach our car through navigation and a clicked photo of the parked area.

7) Yelp

Platform: Android & iOS

This Augmented reality smart phone app helps us find restaurants and hotels near our surroundings.It displays the restaurants and hotel information on our smart phone screen and also displays the desired reviews and ratings of the people who’ve visited the places. It is a much easy to use and a systematic app.

8) Google Goggles

Platform: Android & iOS

This smart phone app uses the image recognition technology which gives information about various types of logos,barcodes,landmarks etc. We can read the book summaries by scanning the title,just by taking its picture. The app also recognizes paintings,books,DVDs,CDs with help of the powerful Google search engine. This app can also be used for entertainment purposes like solving puzzles etc.

9) SnapShop Showroom

Platform: Android & iOS

Suppose you buy a new house, and your not sure whether which furniture will suit best to your room, this problem is solved by this smart phone app. SnapShop Showroom is an augmented reality app to try out furniture for your room without moving anything in reality. Just select the furniture u desire for from the catalog and bring them to life by using your smartphone camera. You can select the desired color of the furniture as well as you can also move the furniture of your smart phone screen, Once your satisfied with the furniture, you can click the shopping cart button to buy the item.

10) SunSeeker

Platform- Android & iOS

This smart phone app was designed to benefit gardeners, real estate-agents, architects etc, as it gives an augmented reality view of the sun rays ie solar path with its rise and set times. It also provides us with a direction map with hourly elevation for any day of the year. It provides a Flat View Compass and an Augmented Reality Camera With 3D View showing the solar path, its hour intervals, its winter and summer solstice paths, rise and set times and more and a Map View showing solar direction for each daylight hour.

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