Sekai Camera is Augmented Reality (AR) free-software provided by a Japanese venture Donchidot (http://sekaicamera.com/) through AppStore, which runs on iPhone. Since it was announced in TechCrunch50 2008 (http://www.techcrunch50.com/) on 9th Sept. 2008, it has been receiving great response among iPhone users with millions of download, not only from Japan but from more than 77 countries world-wide.

Image through Sekai Camera.

It works like this - when you launch Sekai Camera application on your iPhone, the digital camera image will show lots of information tags (texts, images, sound) hanging on, which are related to the place or the object like buildings / signboards, as if those tags are floating in air. The tag is called as "Air Tag" added by other Sekai Camera users, and you can also add one and share with the people from around the world.

For example, suppose you visit Ajanta and see the Cave 2 through your iPhone camera with Sekai Camera on. You may find many information or comments posted by previous visitors in your screen, tagging around the ancient beautiful arch, pillars and the paintings. Some may suggest you where to take picture, where you can find trivia, or even may guide you where is the nearest place to stay. Yes, you will find more lively information about the location where you are standing right now, which is the collection of wisdoms from countless people! In other word, your iPhone in pocket can tell you everything you "actually" wish to know while you are in travel, which your old-thick-heavy guide book could not!

User can see information (tags) about the location.

The service is functioned by GPS and PlaceEngine to identify current location. With the latest model iPhone 3GS, the in-build compass recognizes the direction of camera lens that helps showing relatively accurate Air Tag information (the accuracy depends on the signal strength of GPS or PlaceEngine).

Sekai Camera currently runs only on iPhone but will soon support other smart phones too. For this Tonchidot recently (30th March '10) formed a strategic alliance with KDDI (http://www.kddi.com/english/index.html), the second largest communication provider in Japan, to provide the application to their Android handsets for the first time in the world. Through this alliance they are also planning to build a business model of AR service, like integrating shopping function with the Air Tags so user can buy music, official goods, etc. related to the location on the spot.

Although I have never experienced Sekai Camera (nor I own iPhone), I think it or AR application can be benefit for universal users and can soon become another standard IT (web) infrastructure in the era of mobile technology, which internet is becoming more local oriented.