Last academic year, the Skidmore GIS Center began to experiment with augmented reality and mobile devices in order to investigate how these technologies could be applied on campus and in the classroom. This last month the project has successfully passed through the alpha stage, and the GIS Center has published the Skidmore Campus Map using Layar.
Layar is an augmented reality platform which allows for a large amount of AR content created by multiple individuals to be served within one application. Using Layar’s API, we were able to add Points of Interest (POIs) around the Skidmore Campus which would then be served to a user by through the Layar application for iPhone or Android devices. Here’s what the layer looks like:
Layar Screenshot Layar Screenshot
This layer was created by pulling the content from Skidmore’s online campus tour, using Google Maps to obtain coordinates, and entering this information into PorPOIse, a PHP Layar server.

Now that we’ve successfully completed our first attempt at utilizing AR on campus we’re looking into other ways to leverage AR to create unique and compelling experiences on the Skidmore Campus utilizing media and more content in the AR experience.