We are the world: Smartphone app geotags city streets

Tokyo – A new iPhone application allows users to geotag the physical world – to ‘tag’ real-world locations with virtual information, that is – with anything from restaurant recommendations and historical data to live tweets, photographs or sound clips.

Users of the Sekai Camera (‘world camera’) application by Tonchidot point their iPhone at real-world objects and places to see tags on their smartphone screen that reveal information on these subjects. The tags can be read, watched or listened to.

The potential for brands is huge – smartphone users could walk into a store, for instance, and view information about products by pointing their device at them and reading from the tagged image on the screen. With Sekai Camera, real-world and digital information collide in a mass of on-the-move interaction and learning.