Layar has undergone the knife over the holiday season, and as of today version 4.0 is available for download on the App Store. The augmented reality application really took off in 2009, and over this past year the Layar team saw the application grow pretty quickly. New Year, new Layar skin.
So, what is Layar?
The application essentially overlays a camera view with different types of information based on what you’re seeing. For instance, if you’re focusing on a Pizza delivery box, the application could reveal phone number information, location, and other pertinent data based on what it’s displaying.
Layar has undergone a complete interface redesign, and while these things sometimes really mess up an application, Layar 4.0 has really benefitted from the tweaks to the UI. According to Macworld’s David Chartier, the application also now takes advantage of the built in gyroscope to stabilize the images being displayed by the camera. That’s pretty huge if you can’t handle the bouncy images it was displaying previously. If you found yourself feeling queazy while using the application before, you’ll be pleased to know that they’ve fixed the problem.
It’s really difficult putting this application into words, so you should probably download it yourself and take it for a spin. The application is free on the App Store.
