Another day, another Augmented Reality app on the iPhone. This time it’s the popular restaurant chooser Urbanspoon, which has just added the “Scope” feature.
The AR adds to Urbanspoon’s existing featureset, where you can browse or search for a good restaurant nearby or, with a surprisingly fun gesture, shake the phone to get a random local result. With the new “Scope” feature, you’ll see a Google Map showing your position in blue and the red pins representing restaurants nearby.
If you point the iPhone at the horizon, however, the app will detect the change via the accelerometer and switch to camera display view with an augmented reality overlay of those restaurants. They appear as bright circles with smaller size representing farther distance. Each circle contains a percentage of how many app users “liked” that particular restaurant, with more liked restaurants appearing a deeper orange and less liked restaurants fading into shades of grey.
