Video: Nearest Subway App Overlays Virtual Maps on Real World

Forget Google’s Street View, which overlays a view of the street in front of you on… the street in front of you. No, for a look at what augmented reality applications can really do, and just why a compass is so useful in the iPhone 3GS, take a peek at New York Nearest Subway.

The application is simple. Extremely simple, which is all it needs to be when it includes the entire real city of New York within it. First, watch the video, and then, when you have finished picking up your slack, drooping jaw, read this: The app shows you where the nearest subway station is. Hold the iPhone flat and you get an arrow pointing to each of the city’s 33 lines.

This could be enough, but if you then hold the phone up in front of you it will overlay boxes onto the live scene coming through the iPhone’s camera. These boxes float and jiggle around as you move the phone and show you the direction and distance to the nearest stations, along with which lines run through them. If the application works nearly as well as the video demo suggests, this is certain to be a must-have download.

There is a London version also in the, ahem, tubes, and the company behind the application, Acrossair, is looking for bete testers for other cities in the US, Europe and Japan, including Barcelona.

The price is still unannounced, and the app is in the Apple submission process. Oh, and I almost forgot the obligatory mention of  Minority Report. There. Done.

Product page [Acrossair]

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