Semapedia.org – The Physical Wikipedia is an unbelievably cool idea.
Basically, you see a 3D barcode, use some software installed on your phone to take it’s image and you access the wikipedia page for that building/object/sculpture/whatever.
See it in action here.
It’s a great idea – I’ve seen this ‘augmented reality’ idea done elsewhere, with SMS that pings back messages or links to audio, but this implementation is really smooth.
And it’s a great way to experience and participate in the Japanese phenomenon over here…at least until we these things on every magazine advert and product shelf in existence.
Tie this in with Mobile Payments, and you’ve got automatic, portable shops right off a magazine page.
But to use this for non-profit, _useful_ meta information is a fantastic idea. Right, I’m off to tag some Manchester buildings.
(Via Protein.)