Tuscany+

Tuscany+

Where can I find a cheap, traditional restaurant in this area with a menu written in English?' a tourist might ask. The answer to this and many more questions are now at technology-savvy fingertips thanks to Tuscany+, the first ‘augmented reality' application created specifically for the tourism sector. &

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Thu 20 May 2010 12:00 AM

Where can I find a cheap, traditional restaurant in this area with a menu written in English?’ a tourist might ask. The answer to this and many more questions are now at technology-savvy fingertips thanks to Tuscany+, the first ‘augmented reality’ application created specifically for the tourism sector.

 

Part of Tuscany’s official culture and tourism promotion campaign, Voglio Vivere Così, Tuscany+ is based on innovative technology. Point an iPhone 3GS camera at any spot, such as a street, monument, shop, restaurant or bar, and the guide provides an array of information, from multimedia and virtual elements to location-specific data and contents from websites.

 

Created with the idea of offering travellers in Tuscany an interactive, real-time guide that could enhance their holiday, the iPhone app is not just for tourists, but also for locals. In fact, within three days of its launch, through Apple’s iTunes, the guide was downloaded over 1,200 times and used some 3,500 times.

 

Free to download, Tuscany+ has two modes: ‘live’ and ‘map.’ In ‘live’ mode, the user points the iPhone at any scene and balloons with information in three categories pop up: image sightseeing, information from Wikipedia, Wikitravel, and the web team of Voglio Vivere Così; and an aggregation of user-generated online reviews of the place the iPhone is pointing at.

 

The ‘map’ mode plots this information on a map of the user’s current location, thanks to aggregate data from Google Maps and Google Transit, allowing users to find out the distance between important monuments or any services in the area. If, by chance, the users happen to open the app in any other geographic region than Tuscany, it will say ‘you are XX kilometres away from your dream.’

 

Available in both English and Italian, Tuscany+ is the first custom application of this kind developed for Italy. It was launched by H-art, the interactive design agency and partner of the Fondazione Sistema Toscana in the Voglio Vivere Così campaign.

 

Source: www.intoscana.it

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