Aurasma is a radical piece of technology that represents the future of how we use our mobile devices by bringing the physical and virtual worlds together for the first time.
Available on smartphones, the app was created out of technology that is capable of recognizing images, symbols and objects in the real world and understanding them. It can then deliver relevant content in real time, including videos, animations, audio or webpages.
Using the smartphone's camera, GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi internet and its position, acceleration and direction, the technology combines image recognition and a conceptual understanding of the 3D world to recognize objects and images and seamlessly merge augmented reality actions into the scene. Without the need for barcodes or tags, the app is able to see its surrounding environment and make it fully interactive.
The app currently works on the iPhone 4 and iPad 2, and will shortly be available on Android devices.
You can download Aurasma for free from the App Store.
Click here for more information on how to get started.
When you start the Aurasma app, you can start viewing and creating Auras, augmented reality actions, which enable you to overlay videos, audio or interactions over all sorts of images in the real world.
To see how it works, touch the 
button on your app and select Super Anywheres to see a gallery of images that can be viewed and recognized wherever they are found. Find one of those images in the real world or on your computer screen and point your phone to it to see it come alive.
Then you can start creating your own Auras. Select 
and use the step-by-step instructions to create augmented reality actions that appear when you or your friends hover your smartphone over your selected image.
Auras
Auras are augmented reality actions - an Aura could be a photo overlaid on a static image, a movie clip overlaid on a specific geographical location or an animation overlaid on a cereal box.
There are different types of Auras:
· Happenings
Happenings are Auras that are posted in a specific geographical location. From animations over a front drive to treasure hunts around a city for hidden messages, head out onto the road armed with your iPhone 4 to see them come alive. Press 
to see what is nearby, or by setting your smartphone to vibrate, you will be automatically alerted to when there are Happenings in your area.
· Anywheres
Anywheres are Auras that can be recognized in any place independent of geographic location. Create your own Anywheres by pressing , capturing photos, logos, pictures hanging on your wall or other distinctive images that you and your friends will be able to see, share and bring alive on your smartphones.
· Super Anywheres
Super Anywheres are just like Auras except that they were made by the Aurasma team for you to find and try out.
Channels
Channels allow users to get together and create interest groups around their Happenings. You can browse channels by selecting . Create and share your own personalized channels and subscribe to other people's channels to view their Happenings. Subscribe to a channel to activate the Auras from that channel and to receive real-time updates of new Auras.
Social
Auras are more fun when they're shared! Select 
to tell your friends via email, SMS, Facebook or Twitter about Auras and channels that you love.
Newspapers and Magazines
As you leaf through the daily paper, look out for where Anywheres may have been created. Simply by hovering your smartphone over particular pages, logos or articles, Aurasma can enable videos or related content to be overlaid on top. For example, a static image of a weather forecast or a photo from a football match can come alive in the form of a video stream.
Aurasma runs as an app for iPhone 4 and iPad 2, and will shortly be available on Android tablets and smartphones. Visual recognition is performed on the phone and so does not require connectivity. The resulting action may require connectivity depending on type selected. Aurasma can recognize thousands of anywhere images and a virtually unlimited number of Auras. By default Aurasma is set to cache the most popular and nearby Auras when operating on a WiFi connection.
When Aurasma recognizes an object, a number of different actions can occur.
Video
Video including transparency may be placed into the scene in full projected perspective, bringing the scene to life even as the phone and object moves, such as appearing to make a character in a painting come to life, just like in Harry Potter. Such video may also include interaction allowing a user to select a transition to a website. Videos may also extend beyond the trigger, so, for example, a wide movie trailer can play beyond the edges of a tall poster.
Images
Any kind of image may be placed into the scene, for example to update a textbook image with a newer version.
3D Objects
Full 3D objects may be rendered in real time into the scene. For example, a person can appear out of a news article and explain the news.
Games
Games codes may be executed with the game elements tied into the scene and kept in perspective as the viewing point moves. This allows objects in the scene to become aspects in the games.
