Augmented Reality App Finds your Car in that Big Parking Lot

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Here’s a great use for the Augmented Reality feature on your iPhone 3GS: Find Your Car in that huge parking lot. When you are heading home from the mall, just aim your iPhone towards the horizon to track down your car.

This is how it works. Mark your position before you leave your car. Make sure the GPS lock on your exact location is good. If the GPS lock on your location is fuzzy, the accuracy of your car’s location may be a little fuzzy. The app does give an accuracy range depending on the GPS signal.

You can then give the location a name. That’s good for parking garages and spots where your can’t get a GPS signal. But you can solve this problem with any note taking app, and in these situations, the core features of the app may not work well.

When you are back in the parking lot to look for your car, just fire up the app and look for the car icon on your screen. Follow the arrow to your car. The app also gives you the distance to your car.

How accurate this app is depends on your GPS signal. if your iPhone can’t pick up your exact location, it will be difficult to spot your car. But use the GPS accuracy metric to gauge the approximate vicinity of your car. If you still can’t find your car when you reach your target destination, try activating the car alarm with your remote, the car should be close enough to be activated.

The Car Finder app is available in the US for $0.99. It is a great buy when you are leaving that huge parking lot for the baseball game!

This is a post by The Apps+Machine