Several years ago there was an app called Blippr which let you both make and read AR images embedded by tagged code into a flat surface. Before it went under (or was bought and drowned maybe by a competitor), I made a couple for work, and also scanned the front of a display box of flea treatment at the vet’s to reveal a website (imaginative!), to the amazement of the receptionist. Layar was another and both have gone silent.

Now there are some new ones on the scene and I’ve been trying them out. This is Thyng which shows promise but keeps crashing and seems both temporary and limited to the user unless the product is caught on video:

There’s a catalogue of images and animations to choose from but so far I’ve been unable to save anything I’ve made. Pretty though, eh?

The other is World Brush which seems limited in what it can apply to an image and also seems to lose or misplace them – two vanished then reappeared round the back of the painting I’d used as the surface:

It’s early days with these, but I have fantasies about tagging my art work with little bits of AR for people to reveal with an app. Imagine the potential.

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More about World Brush via Medium.com: