First Augmented-Reality Search App Available for iPhone

UDR Inc. has released its first augmented-reality (AR) apartment-search application for the iPhone (3GS) Google Android. According to the multifamily real-estate investment trust (REIT), the move highlights the company’s continued expansion of its mobile-service platform.

In keeping with UDR, augmented reality revolves around a technology that uses the iPhone’s built-in “spatial awareness components.” Those include the GPS, the accelerometer, and the compass. Together (but not necessarily at once), the hardware parts superimpose digital information on top of what is viewed through the phone camera’s viewfinder. That’s how UDR explains augmented reality (AR).

Utilizing Layar, an augmented-reality browser, UDR’s AR applications enable users to point their smartphone in any direction to locate and view available apartments that are within a ten-mile radius from their current location. Additional abilities include viewing apartment pricing, seeing how many of them are available for rent, as well as the distance to an apartment building with pinpoint accuracy, placing a hold on their favorite apartment and even locating nearby museums, restaurants, and theaters.

“We pride ourselves as the industry leader when it comes to embracing and adopting new mobile appliance technology,” Steve Taraborelli, vice president of sales and marketing, UDR, said. “Implementing AR search applications into our existing mobile services platform is another example of how UDR is working to make finding and renting an apartment easier for consumers.”

“The addition of the AR search applications increases UDR’s ability to reach the estimated 63 million Americans who use their mobile devices to access the Internet,” the company added in the report. “Both applications are currently available for free at the Google Android App Store and the Apple iPhone Store.” Later this year, the Layar Reality browser will also be compatible with Sprint’s HTC Hero running on Google’s Android.