Want to augment the reality? Layar adds API to their service!

On June 17th our Martin Bryant covered Layar’s ‘Augmented Reality Browser’. Check back to get a head start on the what and how, if you’ve missed his article.

Last Wednesday Layar announced it’ll open up it’s API for developers, providing 50 developer keys to interested companies across the globe. According to their press release, “with a key it will be possible to create and publish digital layers within the Layar mobile application. Any database with location coordinates can be transformed into an augmented reality layer.”

In a nutshell with Layar opening up it’s interfaces, content providers that already maintain a directory with points of interest can easily integrate it into the Layar experience.

Layar users benefit from additional sources of information and don’t have to wait until the Layar team adds more stuff to the browser.

For the developers out there,  to publish your own information about points of interest (POI) to the Layar Browser you basically have to host a service which responds to incoming HTTP request from Layar’s servers. Through your REST interface Layar delivers you a user’s geolocation along with his filter settings and other meta information. You should return a JSON data structure which contains all of your POIs.

“The Layar API gives developers the opportunity to completely customize the look and feel of their own augmented reality layer, which may include: branding possibilities such as color scheme and custom icons for the layer, exposing the database with Points of Interest (POIs), custom indicators for various types of POI and assigning custom actions to each POI (go to mobile URL, call number, make route, etc).”

You can request an early developer key at Layar’s API site.