Recovery.gov Augmented Reality Mashup
- Written by
- James
- Date
- 10/27/2009 11:48 a.m.
As of today Android and iPhone 3GS users can see recovery.gov contract data on their phones via the Layar augmented reality application. Layar is an application that overlays your view of the real world with waypoints representing your favorite coffee place, the movie theatre you're trying to find, or in this case, where some of that $787 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is going.
If you have an iPhone 3GS or Android device you can install the Layar app for free and then search for "recovery" or "sunlight" within Layar to find this layer. The layer works best near large cities where you are most likely to find recovery contracts, below is an example of what it looks like on the streets of Washington DC.
There are also a few options to help you filter the results should you be in a contract-heavy area like DC, it is possible to filter by amount or search by name if you're trying to find larger contracts or contracts for a certain nearby recipient.
This data is taken from the recovery.gov Where Is The Money Going? map which provides a KML file containing all recipient reported Contracts. As of October 30th this data will be updated with the final contract, grants, and loans.
How We Made It
If you're a developer you might be interested in how we made this. Fortunately Layar makes it quite easy and we've taken a further step to make it even easier if you're already using Django.
The first step was just a quick script to load the data from this KML file into a PostGIS database. Once the data was in a database I developed a reusable Django application that makes it easy to serve data in the format that Layar expects. The reusable Django application we've made available as django-layar.
If you want to see the specific usage of django-layar that powers this particular layer it is short and simple:
Discussion
What are Your Thoughts?
Have thoughts that might fuel this discussion further, post them below. (Markdown syntax is supported in comments.)
This looks incredibly useful, but I see that it doesn't run on a standard 3G (which I have), only the 3GS.
Any plans to produce a 3G version? Perhaps there's an obvious reason that the app can't be compiled for the 3G, but it is escaping me.
Thanks.
@John: There is no compass in the 3G.
Hi John,
As far as I know Layar (the company that built the app itself) doesn't have plans to release a 3G version. I understand that the 3GS is the only iphone with a compass, which is integral to the Augmented Reality view.
Ah, it uses the compass. Thanks.
John, the 3GS has a built-in digital compass that it uses to accurately detect the direction you are facing. The app would not work well at all with a 3G phone. Which, as a 3G owner myself, makes me quite sad.
And next time I will refresh pages in a stale tab before I comment on them.
Great stuff guys. Would you be intrested in bringing this layer to the next level? We will add some exciting stuff to the API that would make this layer more exciting. Email me when you are intrested.
Very nice stuff, I'm a little jealous though, I have done stuff with the Sunlight API, KML, and Layar!
@Raimo - Are you referring to 3D? If Sunlight agrees, I can help them/you with this new effort.
@Royce
not just 3D ;-)
This totally rock!!! :)
btw, what is the URI to the rss feed for this blog????
Saqib: the RSS is at http://sunlightlabs.com/blog/feeds/latest/ (in most browsers you can click the RSS icon in the toolbar to get this)
Thanks James!!! It be useful add a RSS icon for mobile devices.... :)
What about the Palm Pre??
That is truly amazing and definitely one more reason for me to upgrade to a 3gs. -will