Browsing the city by mobile phone presents challenge to interactive DS work

 

One of the perceived growth areas in DS and DOOH is with public interactive screens that can help people find things and places. There’s absolutely value there, but mobile may fairly quickly make the notion of a fixed information station quaint.

 

Consider the Dutch company Layar, which has developed what I assume is a working version of an Augmented Reality application that lets smartphone users browse the world through their little screen, in real-time. This demo has limitations and attendant issues (browsing around with a smartphone in Canada will result in mobile phone bills that arrive by forklift), but it’s pretty interesting.

 

If I am developing publicly interactive apps, I am thinking about how I work with mobile devices and what my bigger screens can offer that these little screens can’t.