Image from Iconfinder
This iPhone app uses AR/VR to let users move around the real world, & by holding up your phone, visualize virtual signposts that can have messages on them.
The Astral app is still in beta, so it’s not on the Apple Store yet, but its source code can be downloaded from its product page in GitHub. It’s creator & maintainer of the GitHub repository is Oxford, England-based teenage programmer Casper Wylie.
In the product’s README page, Casper claims that the app “aims to change the way we can see information”. The fact that data is already available everywhere & easy to access does not mean that it’s in context. Astral wants to remedy that by allowing people to see location-bound info with the help of AR.
Users can post virtual signposts, known in the app as ‘focals’, write messages on them & put them anywhere they please in the real world. Then, other users can walk around down any street, whip out their smartphone, & see the virtual signposts with their messages as if these were actually physically present.
Casper also points out that this app & its associated social network will open up possibilities in communication, advertising, tourism & a lot of other fields. For example, users will be able to make post anything on signposts & other users can make comments.
These can be humorous quips about their surroundings, reviews on the doorsteps of cafes, shops or restaurants. This app “opens up a virtual social under world to our streets.”
Astral leverages the iOS operating environment, using GPS data, graphics, Swift, C++, Node.js & MySQL. Caspar Wylie, who is currently only 17, but has been programming since the tender age of 8, has previously worked at the Oxford University Computer Science Department, developing scientific software. It seems incredible for such a young guy, but Caspar has also worked at the Northern Ireland’s government Innovation labs developing finance software & is currently doing work for CNKSolutions in London, developing project management & CMS software.
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