Here is a cool augmented reality app that you can try on your smart phone. It is called Aurasma and it’s available for the iPhone and Android. Watch the following video to see how it works:

With this application it is possible to overlay multimedia content like videos, images and animations over real world objects. In the video above you see examples of how to make a painting talk or how to overly a video exactly on the right spot of a printed newspaper. A very interesting use case also shown in the video is the training scenario. In the example a video tutorial that shows how to connect the right plugs of a device step by step is neatly projected into the scene.

When a technology like this gets integrated into a device like currently under development in Project Glass then the talking portraits and interactive newspapers in Harry Potter will become reality soon… ;)

Interesting things like that will be possible with relatively low cost devices.

• Project Natal
• Microsoft Surface Parody
• When Ideas Have Sex
• Seadragon / Deep Zoom Technology
• Scott Berkun: The Myths of Innovation