mixare

Summary

Augmented reality sounds really amazing: it projects useful information onto your surrounding reality. No more stumbling around a city looking with map and compass because with augmented reality you can actually see information layered onto the real world around you. Looking through your phone’s camera lens you can see not just a house, but read a history of it as well! Find out if mixare can do anything cool in this test report.

As already described in the introduction, mixare blends your camera view with location-based information. It's like seeing the world through goggles worn by secret agents in action films.Objects as seen through your camera are marked with circles and include a description of what you are currently looking at. What information you see depends on the direction in which you point your camera – all with the help of built-in compass and location sensors. Tapping a circle opens up a relevant Wikipedia article about any particular object. It’s as simple as that. This let’s you be your own guide without any tipping or searching. You can adjust the radius in which objects are to be displayed on the app.

The layout of mixare is really simple - a bit too simple, actually. Every object is identified only by a circle and its name (not really a problem). What you can’t tell is, however, how far away the object is from where you’re standing. Is the object right in front of me? Is it somewhere in this general direction? If you really need to know whether you’re close to the object, you have to reduce your radius.

The developers could’ve done a better job here.

Moving on, you can choose between several different viewing modes. Camera mode is the default setting for this app at start up since it’s what augmented reality is all about. In addition, you can also use the app in map, satellite or list viewing modes.

The controls are intuitive. The app’s basic idea is so simple that it doesn’t require any complicated options. Everything except for the object distance problem is really to figure out.

Since mixare is only displayed horizontally, I was constantly pressing the volume buttons on my Wildfire by accident.

The speed was alright, but it was an entirely different story with reliability. During my test, mixare crashed one time too many. It’s a bit annoying, but nothing catastrophic for this little app. It’s not like you lose any data when it force closes and mixare starts back up really fast. Nevertheless, stability is a big issue with this app.

mixare is available on the Market for free. Can't complain there!