Queen’s Day, a huge public holiday this Tuesday in the Netherlands, has a rich history with Layar. Just last year, the local newspaper where the Queen herself was to visit enhanced its pages with extra content about the royal visit using Layar. It even provided a link to a livestream of the day’s events for supported devices.

This year, it’s not just Queen’s Day – it’s also the coronation of the new King (yes, next year it will be King’s Day) and with this evolution comes more evolution of augmented reality and interactive print with Layar.

A new Dutch augmented reality agency AugmentNL has come up with a unique way to use some of the most prominent space in Amsterdam as interactive print. The tall and wide Overhoeksgebouw has long been a popular Amsterdam ad space and is currently draped in a decoration for Queen’s Day. Scanning this side of building liberates this space to the people of Amsterdam, letting them post messages and drawings for all to see.

For those in Amsterdam this week, by scanning the side of the Overhoeksgebouw you can view the latest tweet featuring the hashtag #FelicitatieXXL and add your own drawn graffiti to the side. This teaser project from AugmentNL shows the wide audience a simple interactive print ad campaign can have when placed in a prominent location.

Using the dynamic widgets available with Layar’s technology, AugmentNL can provide a live feed of tweets along with an interactive canvas for drawing right on the side of the building. It’s certainly a unique idea, but with Layar it’s simple and easy to implement very quickly.

So if you’re in town for Queen’s Day, scan the Overhoeksgebouw by the IJ river and see how interactive print isn’t just for magazines – it’s great for providing interactivity on large outdoor advertising as well!

Yesterday marked the opening of Fashion Week here in Amsterdam, and to spread the word today, they’ve enhance the front pages of every big newspaper in the Netherlands.

From de Volkskrant to Spits to Trouw and of course De Telegraaf - all of them have content waiting to be unlocked and viewed by scanning them with Layar. The fashion house Marga Weimans is behind the “take over,” which features a special video and other info about Fashion Week.

If you’re in the Netherlands, pick up a newspaper, scan it with Layar and check out the videos and other content. Watch the video below to see today’s papers come to life!

On July 11th, Layar is hosting a seminar in Amsterdam for members of the media and publishing industries. This seminar will introduce the Layar Creator and interactive print, providing an opportunity for anyone interested in the Layar Creator to see an in-depth presentation and try it out themselves.

The event is free and kicks off at 1:30pm. Check out more info (in Dutch) below or click here to register right now!

Woensdagmiddag 11 juli a.s. organiseert Layar, wereldmarktleider in augmented reality en interactive print een seminar voor uitgevers, redacteuren en print professionals die meer toegevoegde waarde willen leveren aan hun lezers en adverteerders. Op het seminar leer je hoe makkelijk je print kunt combineren met digitaal, wat de toegevoegde waarde voor lezers is en hoe het meer biedt aan adverteerders.

De hoofdredacteur Jildou van der Bijl van LINDA en de Interactive Paper Maker Leonieke Verhoog van VPRO delen hun ervaringen en lessen in Interactieve Print. Ontmoet de experts van Layar en leer anderen collega’s kennen die reeds begonnen zijn of gaan beginnen. Het event is kosteloos, er is echter beperkte ruimte dus registreer snel!

Neem een laptop en de PDF van jouw laatste uitgave mee zodat deze tijdens de seminar, begeleid door onze experts, verrijkt kan worden.

Depending on where you live, if you’ve ever wanted to hear from the founders of Layar up close and in person, this week is a good chance to do just that! This week, both Maarten Lens-FitzGerald and Raimo van der Klein will be speaking at events in both Europe and North America.

Tuesday and Wednesday this week is the third annual Augmented Reality Event in Santa Clara, California. Maarten will be making his third appearance at the event, and will be presenting in the business track about the augmented reality market.

Maarten’s talk, dubbed “Where the Money Is,” will be an overview of lessons learned by Layar as we strive to make our technology ubiquitous, secure a strong hold in existing revenue streams and make money for ourselves.

“It is about what lies beyond today’s AR with geolocation, games, 3D campaigns, animation, etc.,” says Maarten about his talk.

You’ll also be able to watch a demo of a new product coming soon from Layar which aims to achieve these goals. The talk is at 10am on Tuesday, May 8th at ARE2012 at the Santa Clara Convention Center.

As for Raimo, he’ll be much closer to home at Mobile Convention Amsterdam (MCA). After a highly successful sequel event last year with over 800 visitors, MCA is back again for the third time to bring together the best and brightest in the mobile world in Northern Europe.

On Tuesday, May 8th, Raimo will be speaking with Anita de Beijl, marketing manager for Sanoma Media’s vtwonen. You may remember our project with vtwonen not long ago in which they used Layar to enhance the pages of their magalogue with extra content and direct buy buttons.

Anita and Raimo will discuss the process of partnering up to create this project and the results of the experiment. You can see the discussion live tomorrow at 12:45pm in the Media & Publishing track at MCA.

We’re excited to announce that Layar 6.0 including Vision is now available in the App Store, just in time for iPhone users to experience the awesome AR content in the latest issue of LINDA. magazine.

LINDA., the largest women’s glossy in the Netherlands, partnered with Layar to create the first Dutch augmented magazine, showing infotainment and commerce to be a natural fit with augmented reality.

More than 50 pages inside this month’s edition of LINDA. magazine have been augmented with digital buttons that enable readers to access additional digital content using their smartphones. These buttons link to specific websites, videos, app stores and phone numbers.

A total of 120 augments can be found throughout the magazine for readers to view and interact with.

 Some examples from the magazine include: 

• Unique backstage video footage of the cover shoot
• One-click access to sites selling the fashion featured in the articles
• The ability to book a test drive for the advertised cars

“We are thrilled LINDA. wanted to work with us and use Layar,” said Claire Boonstra, Layar co-founder. “Not just because it is a great magazine, but it proves what we said with the launch of Layar Vision; this is a utility that generates value for brands, retailers and online merchants by making physical items interactive.”

Watch the video to see LINDA.‘s pages come to life with Augmented Reality.

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