Cyclopedia: Know Your City Better with the Goodness of Augumented Reality on iPhone (Get Redeem Codes)

Posted by Abbas ||

October 5, 2009 ||

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Cyclopedia I wouldn’t be entirely wrong in saying “iPhone app developers are doing the most creative things in the mobile industry.” but the party is just about to begin.

Cyclopedia is an iPhone app that uses iPhone’s inbuilt compass and GPS along with the information on Wikipedia to create an augmented reality effect for its users.

Just point the camera at the object which exists on Wikipedia and get the information instantly. Really, it’s that simple.

The application has an easy to use and stylish UI which will surely impress its users. The moment I got the app on the phone I hit the road to test it out.

It’s an excellent way of exploring the city if you are a traveller and even if you aren’t one, get this app guys, knowing your city a little better won’t hurt you in anyway.

I drove down to the nearest location on the map and pointed the camera at it to get the information from Wikipedia.

The location you see in the picture is Superdawg, known for its old style of making hot-dogs.

Superdawg

Sometimes just pointing the camera at an object does not get you the results as the information-pointers on the top of the application remain outside the viewfinder area. This can be easily be fixed by adjusting the viewfinder area.

Another important configuration to get the best results from this app is in the radar feature where you can set the number of miles to filter the information that’s around you.

If you are a traveller you might want to start your day by scanning 10-12 miles and once you have all the connecting points and a planned route then reducing the radius to just about a mile will give you the chance to see the place much closer.

Guys at Chemical Wedding got the first version just right. However, quite a few things should be added to this application to keep the interest going for this app.

Here are few of the things that should be added to make the application better..

Wikipedia integration should be much better. I say this because before stopping by at Superdawg to test the app I stopped by at Leaning Tower of Niles. Surprisingly Cyclopedia did not recognize the location, I checked Wikipedia for information on the Tower and it exists.
I am not sure how this app uses the information from Wikipedia but the information should be first processed which will help the Cyclopedia team to introduce filters like Citys, Restaurants, Museums, etc.. because when I am going around the city I might want to see what famous restaurants are around me, got the point?
Introduce more reliable sources. Using just Wikipedia as the source is underplaying this application. The application has good technology backing it and introducing more sources and information will only add to its value. Once more sources are added to the application; let the users choose what sources they want to see the information from.
Get more social, take advantage of the users using this application. You can do this by extending the UI to users where they can add locations that do not exist on any of the sources. Currently app suggests users to add new locations to Wikipedia which will eventually be shown on the Cyclopedia.

Again, it’s a wonderful application and a MUST for all travellers. Cyclopedia is priced at $1.99 and can be downloaded from the iTunes store, click here to go to iTunes.

That’s not all! Thanks to the team at Chemicals Weddings, we have a few redeem codes to share with our readers. Use these redeem codes to get this application for free from iTunes.

How to get the redeem code:

Join Technology Nerd fan group and leave a comment asking for a redeem code for “Cyclopedia” and make sure you leave your e-mail address aswell. Click here to visit Technology Nerd page on Facebook.

Take a look at the following video to see this app in action..

Update 5th OCT: Toby, from Chemical Wedding, got back to us with information regarding a few things pointed out in this article.

I mentioned about one of the locations I visited was on Wikipedia but Cyclopedia did not recognize it. Toby, pointed out that the application is fine and the reason why the location did not show up on Cyclopedia was because the article on Wikipedia was not geo-tagged.

Though there is no immediate solution to this issue, Cyclopedia might add a way to update geotaggs for the articles on Wikipedia from Cyclopedia itself.

Another peice of information Toby shared with us was about the new version of the application that has already been submitted to App store.

New application supports 8 new European languages additional fine tuning options in the radar section and better GPS handling.