Layar was one application that really excited me when I got my first Android phone and I just know this money will help to make a great company an amazing company.

Here is what Raimo van der Klein, Layar’s CEO had to say about how the money will effect them:

What does Layar hope to achieve?
We want to bring impactful Augmented Reality content into people’s everyday lives. Let’s have a closer look at some of the words and phrases in this simple sentence.

“Bring” - This means that Layar is handling the transportation of content and connecting publishers and users on as many mobile platforms as possible. Soon, we will launch the Layar Player, an SDK that will bring Augmented Reality content to any iPhone application. But we don’t only want to be facilitators; we also want to help users discover the Layar content that is right for them at the moment they need it.

“Impactful” - We believe that Augmented Reality in its very core is designed to deliver experiences that can truly touch people. Remember the quote from Confucius? “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” Augmented Reality is the closest digital experience to “doing” that there is today. We will continue to invest in capabilities that offer our developers the tools to create the most exciting mobile digital experiences.

“Into people’s everyday lives” - Augmented Reality is in its infancy, much like television was before the growth of massively successful content formats like soaps, live sporting events and reality TV. It’s also comparable to YouTube before we all realized that we love to watch videos of kittens. At Layar we don’t like to assume. We don’t know which formats will be successful in the medium of Augmented Reality. Therefore, we are structuring our platform in such a way that will allow for the successful formats to naturally emerge.

Layar will also be opening an office in the Bay area and are on the lookout for people to join their team.  I wonder if they would consider a second European office in office in Dublin?

Is Layar packing its bags for Silicon Valley?
Yes and no. We really like it in Amsterdam, and we plan to stay here and expand our team here. We will, however, be opening a U.S. office in San Francisco soon. If you are interested in joining the Layar family in the Bay Area, here are a few of our American openings.

The best of luck to Layar, I am excited to see what the next level of Augmented Reality will look like.

The one application that I was really excited to use was Layar.

Layar is a free application on your mobile phone which shows what is around you by displaying real time digital information on top of reality through the camera of your mobile phone.

Developers can create Augmented Reality layers that can be viewed in the browser.   There are a few Irish examples out there like

Dublin Bikes

Dublin Bus Stops

Daft.ie

I’m glad to see there are a few Irish developer doing a great job here.   This video will give you an idea of what layar can do.

Here is a presentation from Dirk Groten of Layar on how to develop Layers.  You can read more about the presentation on the layar blog.

I am really looking forward to developing applications for android and some layers for the layar browser.

If you are a java developer, download the eclipse plugin for android development and look at some of the sample applications out there.  You will be amazed how easy it is to move over to android development.  I can really see a lot of developers moving to android in the next few years.   With so many java developers out there at the moment, this could be the driving force that pushes android ahead of iPhone.