Ever since we released the Layar Vision Beta less than two weeks ago, we’ve been waiting patiently for real-life examples to surface. Sydney, Australia-based digital artist Yiying Lu, best known for designing what later became the famous Twitter Fail Whale, ended the wait today with her Walls 360 layer video!

Lu worked with Layar Partner Rob Manson and his third-party Layar tool BuildAR to create an interactive Augmented Reality experience that you can launch from the custom wall decals that her successful Walls 360 company makes.

A select few of these wall decals will come with pre-defined AR content that you can also add your own content to through a web-based interface.

The project got some attention from The Next Web today, so they’re off to a fantastic start. We can’t wait to try it out!

Yiying Lu announces AR wall art project from buildAR on Vimeo.

If you’ve created an immersive Augmented Reality experience using the Layar Vision beta and want us to share it, let us know! You can send photos or video links via our Twitter or Facebook, or email them to content[at]layar[dot]com. 

We also encourage you to submit your awesome Layar Vision content to our Creation Challenge for a chance to win a piece of the $55,000!

Over the weekend, ARDevCamp held its very first event in Australia, bringing a Layar-sponsored gathering of augmented reality developers to Sydney. Rob Manson - the man behind MOB Labs and Certified Layar Creation Tool buildAR - hosted the event and posted a great overview of the day’s activities on his blog. Here are a few selections from Rob’s report.

The first ARDevCamp in Sydney was a great event with 40-50 people attending throughout the day. It was held at the Powerhouse Museum in their ThinkSpace providing interactive whiteboards, projectors and laptops for those who needed them. Throughout the day we covered a lot of topics and there was a lot of interesting discussion and debate generated.

Early in the day we covered a basic introduction to Augmented Reality in general and discussed the difference between geo-located, marker based and computer vision based AR. It also gave me a chance to rant a little about my views on the currently limited definition of AR.

@alexmyoung then presented an overview of the current state of interaction available in AR applications. She covered the “4 key modes of AR UX” outlined on the http://AR-UX.com site and it was a great chance to review and debate how projective interfaces like Sixth Sense fit into this analysis. This also raised some interesting discussion around gesture recognition, barehand computing and the opportunities for defining standard languages and norms in this space.

Then @DamonOehlman ran an interesting session on WebGL and I think a lot of people’s eyes were opened to the opportunity that is rapidly evolving here. We had some initial hurdles at the beginning to configure the browsers to support WebGL but quickly overcame that and were able to demonstrate the Mixing Reality demo along with some others. This is a great match for where this technology is really at. It doesn’t work out of the box and the average web user doesn’t even know it’s possible…but without too much effort at all you can get some mind blowing content running in your browser.

Warren Armstrong also gave an overview of the (Un)seen Sculptures exhibition that uses Layar to present art from a wide range of artists at venues like the Sydney Opera House during the Vivid Festival.

[…]

The rest of the afternoon people spent hacking on various projects with a lot of people using http://buildAR.com to start creating layers like the #ARDevCamp layer. @absolut_todd was even able to quickly take the list of Victorian Microbreweries provided by http://data.gov.au to create what is obviously a very useful layer 8)

We wound up the day with a quick play with the Parrot AR Drones and then all headed off for drinks at the Pumphouse which were very kindly sponsored by the team at Layar.

Out of the day came about 100 tweets which reached over 47,000 users. Since then a number of people have also created some great blog posts about the day.

We at Layar are very excited to see the love of augmented reality spreading to every hemisphere of the planet! In fact, following this event in Sydney there are a few more events being planned in the area, including Brisbane, Melbourne and New Zealand.

Photo by Halans.

Last week’s second annual Augmented Reality Event featured many great sessions and keynotes on this budding industry, but it also hosted another year of the Auggies. The Auggies is a fun AR demo competition as teams give their quick pitch to an expert panel of judges in hopes of receiving the “Auggies Award.”

This year, judges Bruce Sterling, Vernor Vinge, Will Wright and Jaron Lanier presided over more than a dozen competing teams. One of those teams was BuildAR, a member of the Layar Partner Network.

BuildAR is an augmented reality CMS that allows anyone to quickly and easily create Layar content using a friendly user-interface. To read more about BuildAR, check out our profile of the tool from last November.

In the video below, Rob gives his pitch about BuildAR, one of Layar’s Certified Layar Creation Tools, and receives some excellent feedback from the judges panel.

Over the last several weeks here on the Layar blog, we profiled three services for generating Layar content, which we call Layar Creation Tools (or LCTs). While other services exist or are in development, we chose to focus on these three - Skaloop, Hoppala Augmentation and BuildAR - because of their availability and accessibility to users of all skill levels.

Each LCT is unique and has its benefits to different users, so we decided to make a matrix that shows which features are available on each LCT. As you can see, Hoppala includes most of the features listed, such as layer actions, 3D objects and custom interaction widgets. Skaloop and BuildAR are simpler LCTs than Hoppala in terms of functionality, but their interface and design is a bit more digestible for more casual users.

If you are interested at all in creating Augmented Reality content on Layar, have a look at the matrix below and see which LCT might be right for you.

As for the services that are in development, keep an eye out for a pair of LCTs which are gearing up to open to public use: VISAR and Poiz. VISAR is a robust engine for creating layers and will likely be comparable to Hoppala in terms of functionality. Poiz is a bit simpler, but seems more detailed than Skaloop or BuildAR with features like the ability to preview the appearance of your layer. Both of these tools are still in the testing phase, but it’s likely that they will be available for public use early next year.

Note: Since this blog was posted, buidAR has since updated its platform significantly, including support for animation, 3D objects and more.

The next subject to be placed under our Layar Creation Tools microscope is buildAR, a web-app built by Australia’s MOB Labs. Much like the previously reviewed Skaloop, buildAR is a simple web-based interface for adding POIs to a map which can be viewed using Layar.

There are two different account types: personal and business. At the moment, both account types have identical functionality, but buildAR will eventually help business account holders launch their very own layer. Using either account allows you to add POIs to a publicly viewable layer. You can specify certain POIs to be private, making them viewable only to you when you login to buildAR from within Layar.

To start adding POIs, simply create either a personal or business account, which are both free to try. After logging in with your account, navigate to a location on the map, or search for a location to go there instantly. To add a POI, just click on the map where you want it to be placed. You can then add a name, a description and some links to associate with the POI. Then select whether to make the POI public or private, and you’re done!

To view POIs in Augmented Reality, simply boot up Layar on your iPhone or Android device and search for the buildAR layer. When the layer loads, there will be automatically placed POIs near you that will allow you to log in to your buildAR account. After you log in, any private POIs will become visible. To get the best view, we recommend switching to “Birdseye” mode to see over nearby POIs.

The features of buildAR are still very basic and do not contain all of the possible functionality of the Layar platform. Adding 3D objects, custom icons or advanced actions are not yet supported. Additionally, it would be nice to have the option to hide public POIs when viewing private POIs within Layar, as the screen can become cluttered, making it hard to find your personal spots.

Despite all this, the basic function of adding POIs is very easy and fast and requires very little technical skill to complete. If you want to quickly and easily view your very own POIs, perhaps buildAR is the right Layar Creation Tool for you!

Note: Since this blog was posted, buidAR has since updated its platform significantly, including support for animation, 3D objects and more.