Using augmented reality is a great way to create a fun, killer app. There are a bunch out there, some are just a novelty and fun like BEP 360, which features a 360° music video by the Black Eyed Peas, or helpful like Word Lens, which allows you to point your iPhone at a foreign language and have it translated to another language. There is even an augmented reality app for Effen Vodka that allows users to see what bars serve the vodka by just holding the phone in different directions.

Augmented reality holds unlimited potential. The app that will be demoed at next week’s Mobile Congress by Metaio, an augmented reality company, takes it to the next level. This app helps users change a printer cartridge by using augmented reality to point to different positions on the printer that must be opened to change the cartridge.

VentureBeat noted that:

For the printer demo, Metaio’s software creates a virtual 3D point cloud from the image of the printer in the mobile phone’s camera view. This point cloud defines the structure of the printer. The cloud is then compared to a markerless tracking reference (a sort of “signature” created from 3D CAD models of the printer) so the software can recognize the correct printer model. The software then renders AR objects over the camera view of the printer in real time and with the correct scale in order to instruct the user on how to change the cartridge.

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Although this app guides you through a simple process that can probably be easily done with out looking at any guide at all, just think about the different processes a technology like this can walk you through.

picture from venturebeat