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Apple’s iPad 2 may have a low-resolution rear camera compared to most rival tablets, but it can still be exploited by innovative augmented-reality apps. Start-up Metaio has published a video showing an iPad 2 version of its Junaio augmented-reality browser, which is expected to hit the App Store “pretty soon”.
The video shows an iPad 2 being used on a street to overlay information on shops, as well as in the home to turn a regular room into, er, an American football stadium. We’re not sure quite why that is, but it looks fun when players start scampering around the pitch.
There’s also a demo of Metaio’s interactive advertising technology. Holding the iPad 2 over printed ads triggers a video version. In the example below, female models are shown, rather disturbingly, being punched in the face, although we’re assuming the ad’s part of an anti-domestic-violence campaign.
Update: In response to a worried comment (see end of piece) Metaio have got in touch to make it clear that yes, this is an anti domestic violence campaign using AR to get its message across, rather than anything glorifying this kind of activity.
The video ends with an AR zombie-shooting game.
We’re not yet convinced that people will be waving their iPad 2s in the air on the streets, using the kind of AR applications that have been popular on iPhone and Android smart phones.
But the in-home uses shown in Metaio’s video are more appealing — even if the print advertisements idea is compromised by the likelihood that tablet users will increasingly read newspapers and magazines in digital form, and so won’t require AR technology to interact with their ads.
Rear cameras are becoming a common feature on tablets this year, with most of the major Android slates packing them, so expect Junaio and its rivals to be available on those devices too. What do you think? Does AR have a big future on tablets and, if so, which kind of apps will be most appealing? Let us know in the comments section below.
In other essential iPad 2 news, we can report that, yes, Apple’s second-generation tablet does blend. Voila:
