Kamra, the First Open Standards-Based Mobile Browser
The Georgia Institute of Technology has announced the release of the developer preview of Kamra, the first mobile augmented reality (AR) browser for the KHARMA (KML/HTML Augmented Reality Mobile Architecture). The release of Kamra for the iPhone in the iTunes Store is expected before the end of June.
So what the heck is Kamra anyway? Well it's the first mobile open standards browser that overlays information from multiple website channels simultaneously onto the user's phone.
Kamra allows any content that can be displayed on Mobile Safari to be placed into the physical environment using standard KML. It will allow authors the freedom to customize the browser interface behavior for their own channels in addition to letting users create and distribute content from their own hosted websites or through filters that generate KML.
The Kamra development team is led by Blair MacIntyre, associate professor in the School of Interactive Computing and faculty member at the GVU Center at Georgia Tech. Alex Hill, postdoctoral fellow within the Augmented Environments Lab in the School of Interactive Computing, will also be present at the demonstrations. The Kamra project is sponsored by Alcatel-Lucent as part of their University Innovations Program.