Magazines retail stores are starting to recognize the ubiquity of smartphones are plastering their products with QR codes other scannable objects. The space is somewhat fragmented, with several proprietary codes symbols out there for you to scan with their matching applications. at follows are some of the best apps in this category to ramp up your smartphone’s scanning power. Goggles can scan not only QR codes but also products ads to find related content. You can even take pictures of books, album covers, or famous artwork to get more info. th Goggles you need to just experiment try out scanning everyday items (although you may get funny looks if you do this excessively). Goggles (Free) th yar you can just point your phone at anything it find if there are restaurants, bars, or other points of interest worth discovering. You can also scan print articles or ads to get a mixture of offers to purchase the item or perhaps see a movie trailer from a print ad. A yar Glass app is also available if you are one of the few proud owners want to scan the items around you with minimal effort. yar (free) The Star lk database has over 200,000 celestial bodies a substantial bank of information about planets, satellites, constellations. One of the coolest features is the e Machine, which will explore the map of the night sky from years past or into the future. Star lk ($2.93) For example, Sunset uses Blippar with the publication’s print ads. Scanning the page will generate a “Buy Now” button that takes you right to the product’s web site. Sometimes the link is to a non-mobile site, so it can be rather challenging to maneuver on the phone. The content varies by what the company has programmed into its Blippar connection, with some sites choosing to add in games or contests. Blippar (Free) IKEA Catalog (Free) The company also has a product called kitude aces, which much like yar will float an icon above the direction of a place that the app thinks you should check out. It finds restaurants, hotels, places to shop. But kitude aces is a “Sony Select app” only available for those with a Sony phone. kitude (Free) You can create your own virtual field trips by marking locales saving where you went inside of the app. It can be somewhat of a battery drain if you allow it to aggressively offer local details, so it may be worth adjusting this feature to ensure you can actually use the app through the duration of a trip. Field Trip (Free) TouristEye (Free) Find other content built by Aurasma by looking for its image in books, magazines, or posters. Of course you’ll do this while also looking for all the other app icons QR codes that are competing for the attention of your augmented reality apps. Aurasma (Free)
