Augmented Reality Capability Discovered in Mobile Safari on iOS 4.2

With developers enjoying early access to iOS firmware releases before they go public, it’s not unusual for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users to find out about new and upcoming features before they actually get their hands on the iOS update. There is one feature, however, that seems to have gone unnoticed in iOS 4.2 until now. That feature is the augmented reality capabilities that are within Apple’s mobile Safari app.

The feature was picked up by Occipital after they developed a new panoramic photo app for the iPhone. They discovered the feature, which uses the gyroscope in the iPhone 4 and fourth gen iPod Touch, to deliver an augmented reality experience within the Safari browser.

The discovery of this feature is pretty awesome, and I can’t believe we’ve gone this long before it was noticed, or that Apple have kept it quiet. Could this be the beginning of websites that we navigate using our gyroscopes? I sure hope so!

For a demo of this feature, visit http://occip.it/pt3dmqna on one of the supported devices mentioned above and let us know what you think.

{via BGR}

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One Comment on ““Augmented Reality Capability Discovered in Mobile Safari on iOS 4.2”

  1. Tim Miller

    Is there any way for those of us who don’t have an iPhone 4 / 4th gen Touch to see what it looks like? Maybe an old timey video showing it in action?

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