Bionic Eye is a $0.99 augmented reality app for the iPhone to help you find fast "food" chain restaurants.
From Cult of Mac:
Designed for the iPhone 3GS, Bionic Eye is an augmented reality app that overlays information about nearby points of interest over the iPhone’s camera. Hold the camera up to the building in front of you, and thanks the iPhone’s GPS and compass, the screen is overlaid with little virtual signs that say what’s inside. It also includes virtual signposts showing the way to the nearest subway station or Starbucks coffee shop.Bionic Eye iPhone App Points the Way To the Nearest Hooters
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Good idea: augmented reality app that overlays locations of eateries in the area
Better idea: augmented reality app that overlays nutritional information about eateries in the area
LOL - That's try a "The Onion" headline.
Because if there's one thing I can't find in big cities, it's fast food.
How about an augmented reality bathroom finder?
As if there is anywhere in North America, where you can't just look around and see some fast food signage...
I don't understand why people still eat there... and why they develop tools to find these places... omg humanity is a mystery...
Ha ha!
"Nearest Subway" was developed by Acrossair and not by Presselite. The former is currently available in the App Store under the title, "New York Nearest Subway." It does not display anything other than MTA subway stops and JFK parking information.
"Nearest Places," which was also developed by Acrossair does, in fact, display banks, bars, cinemas, parking, restaurants, and other points of interest, but it does not display them as logos.
It's a valid point though. My first thought when I saw this was "Awesome! I want it!" My second thought was "I really hope I can suppress display of certain business or types of businesses... I don't want to see my screen covered in garbage noise."
The video example floating around maybe isn't the best way to market it to the tech-savvy types who are more likely to use it.
Mark I think you meant "Ha ha!"
I love the idea of AR...but why does it seem always to be iphones that the applications get made for though?
I don't wanna buy Apple products, because Apple suck. FSJ and that.
Arrghs.
I wonder which of these will be the first to sue for unauthorized use of their logo, despite the fact that this app helps people find their stores. Hmmm...anyone wanna start placing bets? I vote BK!
You know, I've always thought "what this city needs is more big signs for fast food and such" I'm quite grateful that for a mere $.99 I can get more advertizement in my life.
Tyger11:
I don't think you can sue for "unauthorized use of a logo" in most cases unless the logo is used in such a way that it infringes on a trademark.
For example, I can't put a big yellow M on my own hamburger stand to trick people into thinking I'm affiliated with McDonald's. But I COULD make a picket sign with the McDonald's logo above the text "meat is murder!"
The iPhone, it's like Windows, but on a phone...
All the stuff you want to use is on there, but you feel so dirty for using it.
I'm not ashamed to say that I like fast food. I don't eat it too often, because I don't want to get fat, but it's tasty, damn it. There's a reason why a lot of it sells, and it ain't just because it's fast and fairly cheap.
I find it sort-of-funny that the same people who can't give enough praise to "peasant food" from France, Italy, or Germany are such haters of the American peasant food.
Mind you, I keep a special place in my soul to hate Starbucks, for a variety of reasons, but that's another matter entirely.
All that said, I'm amazed once again that people will pay - even a buck - to help large corporations advertise. This app should not only be free, but the chains should be paying people to use it.
Aldasin,
Quite right.
Unless this app will only show you directions to fast food chains this is unnecessarily snooty.
As for why people eat in chains:
they might be in an unfamiliar place and want a place where they know exactly how bad the food will be.
Never mind that you don't know how good or bad an "authentic" (hmm, scare quotes are fun) place will be; family owned non-chain restaurants are in vanishingly short supply near near tourist destinations, anyway.
Yeah, I'm with Beelzebuddy. Haven't you guys gotten the insulting fast food thing out of your systems yet? Isn't there some new trendy thing to prove your hipster cred by dismissing?
Also, even ten thousand visits to the worst burger joints couldn't equal the nastiness of your oozing sore photo from Raratonga.
Brainspore -
What is logical or even legal often has little to do with what happens in lawsuits. You can always sue - you just can't always win. I guarantee at least one of these will at least issue a "cease and desist" order WRT the use of their logo.
it can show you fast food places and hotels and wifi hot spots and subway stations in nyc and dc and chicago and apple stores etc
Tyger11- Point taken.
"I love the idea of AR...but why does it seem always to be iphones that the applications get made for though?"
Well, you pretty much need the built-in magnetometer and accelerometers to determine your orientation (along with the GPS to determine your position).
Do Android phones have magnetometers?
@Quothz
"I find it sort-of-funny that the same people who can't give enough praise to "peasant food" from France, Italy, or Germany are such haters of the American peasant food."
That's because if you know anything about food, and actually enjoy eating stuff that doesn't kill you over time, you'll find that French and Italian peasant food is excellent (German not so much though).
Plus it's not even remotely comparable. Multinational fast-food/junk-food companies that feed you crap and (treat the crap they feed you like crap before they kill it) treat their employees like crap, and treat you like crap don't deserve your money.
I'd even go as far as to say that if you give them money because you have no taste and are able to enjoy what they poison you with, you're acting like an unconscious egotistic selfish dick.
My friend, you should be ashamed. But don't worry, you're far from being the only one. :)
@RedRichie: Check out Bruce Sterling's blog over the past few weeks. He's been going crazy over AR, and, since he owns an Android phone, has been posting quite a few non-iPhone apps.
e.g. Check out Google Sky. Now that's a worthwhile use of AR.
Thanks for being a reader for so many years, Narual!
@Quothz - What exactly is an "American peasant"? I wasn't aware the US had a pre-industrial age. Do you mean Native Americans?
Regardless, the idea that you can form a cuisine in under 100 years is pretty ridiculous though isn't it? I mean, that's less than 3 generations!
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If you can afford an iPhone, what the hell are you doing eating $3 fake food?
I think what would be more useful would be adding what hours these places are open. I'm in the Seattle area, and most things close pretty early here, especially in the suburbs like Bellevue. Something showing me what's still open would be very handy indeed.
Falix, you're plain wrong. I got no stronger argument since you didn't make one. I will go so far to say that when I was a chef I got a couple pretty good reviews. I'm not now, because frankly I hated the job, but I can still knock out plates full of fair-to-middlin' food. And I say Mickey-Dee's makes some tasty grub, regardless of your particular pretensions.
Gil, "peasant food" just means what the poor folk eat: It doesn't imply an actual feudal system. It's a common enough term. Other American peasant food includes American Chinese cuisine, Tex-Mex, Creole cookin', and pretty much anything involving cornmeal. Most of these came into play relatively recent-like, and most have influence from outside the borders, but they're distinctly American nonetheless.
Fast food is no less a legitimate cuisine - one enjoyed worldwide but originating in America. We should be proud, not abashed, that a piece of our culinary culture rivals the traditional dishes of Europe in popularity even in Europe. Although, like many delicious foods, it should be eaten moderately. A Burger King hamburger isn't bad for you;* eating one every day is. The same can be said for pasta, ice cream, or for that matter virtually any dish that isn't mostly made from a variety of fresh fruits and veggies.
* Although their mascot actually manages to be creepier than Ronald McDonald, which must've taken some real effort.
@The Unusual Suspect: I had wondered about this when I saw the astronomy app for the Android, since it seemed to be able to sense direction and orientation as well as location (and I was fairly sure it wasn't doing image recognition on visible star fields).
And yes, it seems that Android phones do tend to have a magnetometer - in fact, there's suggestion that it hit sooner than the iPhone.
It seems to be pretty new, though, so probably only on the latest Android-running phones and iPhones?
Ah. So this post is not about the same technology for finding invisible monsters as in the earlier post then?
Or you could just use the MacMap.
Quothz, we'll be sure and reserve a seat on the "B" ship for you.
@#3: http://www.have2p.com
@#29: The Jack In The Box near where I live (Evergreen/Rt99 at Airport Rd, just south of Paine Field) is open 24 hours. Because I know those fast-food cravings are worth half-hour drives to satisfy ;]
yelp
@#11, #22: Yes! Even the very first Android phone (the ADP1 "Android Developer Phone" direct from Google) had a digital compass in it. There are several really cool augmented reality applications for Android (wikitude driving and travel, layar, googlesky, enkin) and wikitude even has an API for building your own.
As always, for something you're likely to rely heavily on and may start pouring a lot of personal data into, better to start with an open platform...
Brooklyn bridge-City Hall is/are a fastfood joint?! Madness!
All it needs now is the location for 'girlfriends' and 'underground weapon dealers' and I can finally pitch my PS3 and GTA4 disc in the trash!
Benher: ...and an app that has an annoying cousin call you too often, asking if you "...wooood ly-ek to go zee some teetees?"
@Gilgongo:
American colonies declare independance from Great Britain: 1776 CE
2009 - 1776 = 233 > 100 years
Yay, arithmetic!
Quothz:
Falix, you're plain wrong. I got no stronger argument since you didn't make one.
I didn't make any argument because arguments only make sense when you want to convince somebody of something. Since I didn't want to convince you of anything, I didn't make any argument.
I made some claims though. Claims you could've disputed but didn't. My guess is that you couldn't counter them on a factual basis. But I'd still like to know what I said that you thought was wrong... let's agree you're not a dick. ;)
But my claims are that fast-food isn't comparable to European peasant food, that fast-food isn't healthy, and that it's based on making as much money as possible as opposed to making the best food as possible. When I say fast-food though I should say McDonalds, Burger King, KFC etc.
Where am I plain wrong?
I will go so far to say that when I was a chef I got a couple pretty good reviews.
Doesn't make your claims true. It makes me question the credibility of your reviewers though...
I'm not now, because frankly I hated the job
See? Why am I not surprised here?
Fast food is no less a legitimate cuisine - one enjoyed worldwide but originating in America.
Not true. Fast Food is a less legitimate cuisine and it didn't originate in America. Waffles, Pies, Pizza, Pancakes Fish and Chips, and more, are no less fast food than Hamburgers. And trust me, they were very common even before America existed.
I would agree to say that you can't argue about the superiority of European fast-food over American fast-food (if you leave mcdonalds and co aside), but it's always not-so-sophisticated cuisine. I'd even go as far as to say that you just don't call it "cuisine".
A Burger King hamburger isn't bad for you; eating one every day is. The same can be said for pasta, ice cream, or for that matter virtually any dish that isn't mostly made from a variety of fresh fruits and veggies.
Okay, I challenge you to eat A Burger King hamburger every day for one year, I'll eat pasta, and we'll see who's better off.
Fast-Food by definition is less healthy than regular food.
Most importantly though, is what you eat, how it came into your plate, why you eat it, and the consequences of your meal on your environment and body. Look at these points when you eat at Burger King, and when you eat at the table of some random Italian peasant. I hope you feel ashamed now...
There certainly is American cuisine, or rather cuisines (for example, New Orleans and Boston are wildly different). It's just as weird to deny that as to think that fast food is it. McDonald's is to American food as Pizza Hut is to Italian food. Yes, technically American, and even a distinctly American institution, but not the equivalent of "peasant food," whatever that is. It's a different category.
Fast-Food by definition is less healthy than regular food.
This makes no sense. So as long as I make it from scratch, a quiche full of eggs, cheese, and bacon is healthier for me than a grilled beef patty slapped between a couple of buns?
Regarding all the references to American "peasant food" vs. Italian "peasant food":
Italy has fast food joints a-plenty in all the major cities now, including both Italian and non-Italian franchises. Low quality fast food is the norm for cheap eats in all industrialized countries these days, though portion size may vary.
Adamnvillani,
No, fast-food doesn't mean that it's food not made from scratch. It just means you didn't take time to cook and eat which generally will give you less healthier results.
I admit though, the way I said it doesn't make sense. And the word "fast-food is so vague"...
Brainspore,
Low quality fast food is the norm for cheap eats in all industrialized countries these days, though portion size may vary.
That's true.
I was going to come on and rant about how there's no nutrional difference between a hamburger from McD's, your local pub or at home. I'm glad I was beaten to the punch.
I was going to come on and rant about how there's no nutritional difference between a hamburger from McD's, your local pub or at home.
Remind me not to have dinner at your house. There's a huge nutritional difference unless you buy the lowest quality of meat and slather it with emulsified starch/fat goo when you're cooking at home.
This could really have streamlined things for folks rioting at G20 this week!