Just a month or so after augmented reality browser Layar won EUR 75,000 in Vodafone's Mobile Clicks contest, the technology was already being put to work in a custom-designed application for Louisiana's Voodoo Experience music festival.

Layar is a free mobile browser for Android devices and the iPhone that overlays computer-generated information on top of real-time, on-screen images from the handset's built-in camera. The Voodoo app was designed by New Orleans ad firm Zehnder Communications using Layar 2.0 to let festival-goers with enabled phones get information on performances, attractions and services simply by pointing their phone cameras toward key parts of the festival grounds. When viewing concert stages, for instance, one custom AR layer provided information on lineups, schedules and current artists performing, including artist profiles and Web links. Pointing a phone camera at a vendor would show menus and pricing, while other points of interest highlighted by the app included vendor locations, artist displays, restrooms, ATMs, entrances and exits, medical sites and other services. Zehnder was one the first 50 firms worldwide named as developers of the Layar platform. A demo of the Voodoo app is available on Vimeo.

In addition to a whole new world of entertainment and useful information for mobile consumers, augmented reality also opens up a wealth of new OFF=ON opportunities for advertisers. Time to explore the possibilities for *your* tech-savvy brand...?

Website: www.z-comm.com
Contact: jzehnder@z-comm.com

Despite the best efforts of companies like Disney and Sage Hospitality to reward those who donate their time to charity, the fact remains that volunteerism in the US has declined by 27 percent since 2001, according to app developer Catalista. Hoping to combat that trend, the San Francisco company has created mobile apps for Android and iPhone that make it easy for potential volunteers to find opportunities across the country.

Users begin by downloading the free Catalista application onto their mobile phone--versions are available for both the Android-based T-Mobile G1 and myTouch and Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch. The application uses All for Good's open API to connect users with more than 200,000 real-time, local opportunities across the US, offering them numerous chances to give back that day, weekend or month in an effort taking place nearby. Catalista also lets users invite their friends on Facebook to join them in a volunteer effort; in addition, it provides a way for users to track their cumulative impact and rate their volunteering experience once they've done a good deed.

Even beyond the mobile access to volunteer opportunity listings, what seems especially compelling about Catalista is the possibility that it could facilitate spontaneous, ad-hoc volunteering, whereby people with a few hours of unscheduled time on their hands can find and participate in local opportunities that they might not have been able to plan for otherwise. One to partner with or emulate for would-be volunteers in the rest of the world...?

Website: www.catalista.net
Contact: catalina@catalista.net

Spotted by: Brian Somers

There's no shortage of real-world games that use technology to add a virtual element, as we've already seen in such examples as Treasure World, The Hidden Park, LocoMatrix and Swinxs. What's less common is to see classic board games add technological features to their game play, yet that's just what Hasbro has done to its decades-old game Clue.

Clue: Secrets & Spies is a new twist on the classic board game that adds text messaging to its game play. Players in the game are challenged to stop the nefarious Agent Black, who is plotting an assortment of evil capers. To do so, they must go undercover as international agents, complete missions and attend secret meetings. An included "spy light" can be used to reveal secrets, while players' cell phones can be used to receive Spy Text messages that could help or hinder their game. Players need only text the word "SPY" to 90445 to start receiving messages, which will number six in total during the course of a game. Participating mobile operators are AT&T, T-Mobile US, Nextel, Boost, Virgin, US Cellular, NTelos, Dobson, Sprint, Verizon Wireless and Cincinnati Bell Wireless; the cost of text messages is not included in the game's USD 24.99 price.

By adding a thoroughly modern twist to a classic game, Hasbro not only stands to attract a younger crowd of mobile-minded users, it also provides yet another illustration of what our sister site calls the OFF=ON trend, whereby the lines separating the online and offline worlds are increasingly blurring. Other game makers: what about you...?

Website: www.hasbro.com/clue/default.cfm?page=Products/Detail&product_id=24609
Contact: hasbro.custhelp.com

Spotted by: nytimes via Judy McRae

As attractive as those tight-fitting workout clothes might be, there's not much room to carry a notebook and pencil. With this in mind, Gym Technik created a digital tool that allows fitness buffs to track workouts and analyse their progress using something they're likely to have with them anyway: their phone.

Users can set up a Gym Technik account online at home, and then use their smartphone to access routines and data while at the gym, where they can also input data on weights, sets and reps, and track their performance with progress charts and graphs. Collected data can be submitted to Gym Technik's personal trainers for advice about achieving fitness goals, and users can access an extensive library of trainer-approved workouts. Gym Technik guarantees that its basic edition will remain free, but is working on a premium (paid) service.

While similar apps are available for the iPhone, there's still room for entrepreneurs to create mobile offerings beyond the App Store, helping consumers track and improve progress towards fitness or other goals, from weight loss and healthy eating to academic development and finance.

Website: www.gymtechnik.com
Contact: www.gymtechnik.com/support.aspx?mode=contact

Spotted by: Sharad Mohan

Back in 2006 we wrote about cadeaucode.nl, a Dutch site that lets mobile users send each other gifts by text message. Now from across the ocean comes KangoGift, a new site that enables similar capabilities.

Launched into beta last week, KangoGift has partnered with a variety of gift retailers starting in its home base of Harvard Square, Mass. Now anyone in the world can visit KangoGift.com to purchase a gift for a friend or loved one in that neck of the woods, providing that person's mobile number in the process. As soon as they place their order, a text voucher for that gift is delivered instantaneously to the recipient, who can then redeem it as soon as they choose. Real-world goods currently on offer through KangoGift include gourmet sweets, foods and flowers, but a selection of free, virtual gifts are available as well.

KangoGift hopes to expand throughout the US in the near future. Retailers of gifts and treats: start lining up now! ;-) And for more on real-time commerce, real-time marketing and real-time everything else, check out trendwatching.com's latest briefing on NOWISM.

Website: www.kangogift.com
Contact: inquiries@kangogift.com

Social media can instantly connect large numbers of people who share interests and activities. Much like sporting events. The New York Mets are pioneering a way to unite these two forms of public interaction, by bringing social media into the stadium. Beginning this season, a Citi Field big screen will play host to an SMS marketing system that presents a whole new way for sponsors to interact with fans, and fans with each other.

Powered by txtstation, a company specializing in mobile marketing for sports and entertainment, the system boasts several features to get the crowd involved. Xerox is sponsoring 'Citi Field's Fan Photos', which displays a slideshow on the big screen of photos taken by supporters with their camera phones. 'Verizon Wireless Fan Choice Awards' runs polls on such topics as "Who is the Met's player of the game?", the results of which are displayed on the screen in real-time, while Caesar's Palace has sponsored a 'Fan Forum' that lets fans air their views on a given subject. Wise Snacks, meanwhile, is giving fans the opportunity to vote for their preferred 'Eighth-Inning Sing-Along' song, and Verizon is taking it to the next base by replying to messages from their network users with an invitation to visit their in-stadium store. It's all novel advertising that is sure to catch the attention of stadium-goers.

Similar systems are starting to pop up in all kinds of public spaces—concerts, clubs, shopping malls—as marketers take advantage of mobile connectivity to integrate levels of interactivity that are inspired by online communication.

Website: www.txtstation.com
Contact: michael@txtstation.com

Spotted by: Mobile Marketer via Judy McRae

As the number of people who are twittering continues to rise, more and more businesses are adding to their existing methods of communicating with (potential) customers. An innovative example was recently introduced by London's eco-taxi service greentomatocars. The company, which we covered when they launched back in 2006, claims to be the first private hire service in the UK to take bookings via Twitter. Users simply send a direct message to @greentomatocars with the booking details, receive a tweet back with a unique booking reference, and wait for a Prius to pull up. Besides using Twitter for bookings, greentomatocars also hopes to encourage debate about environmental issues.

Although Twitter hasn't released hard data on how many active users it has, the service seems to be having a profound effect on business-to-customer communication, enabling companies to engage in an immediate, ongoing and intimate conversation with customers and potential customers, creating a better mutual understanding and forging brand loyalty. (For more, see our sister-site trendwatching's briefing on foreverism.)

Website: www.greentomatocars.com
Contact: mail@greentomatocars.com

Of 140 million cell phones sold in the US in 2007, only 10% were recycled, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. That leaves a mounting pile of e-waste to deal with. Offering a solution is EcoATM, an automated reuse-and-recycle machine that makes it easy and financially rewarding for consumers to offload their abandoned electronics. The process is simple: a customer feeds the machine an old mobile phone and it analyses the device and assigns it a value. If the phone has a resale value, the customer receives store credit, or can donate the amount to charity. If there's no resale value, customers can choose to have the handset recycled.

The first EcoATM was installed in Omaha, Nebraska, and has already proved successful, with 23 phones collected on the first day. It's likely to hold appeal for retailers and manufacturers too, as the system is designed to facilitate compliance with new federal 'takeback' laws. Although it currently only takes mobile phones, EcoATM will soon be able to accept a range of consumer electronics including MP3 players, digital cameras and even computers and printers.

Similar to the reverse vending machines we covered a few years ago—which make for easy recycling of beverage containers—the EcoATM's combination of convenience and a reward will no doubt appeal to consumers who might otherwise neglect to find a destination for unused gadgets. The incentive for EcoATM is clear: an estimated 12 billion dollars is currently sitting in drawers across America in the form of old phones. (Related: Retail approach to recycling — Incentive-based recycling — Startup buys broken iPods and abandoned GameCubes.)

Website: www.ecoatm.com
Contact: erosser@ecoatm.com

Spotted by: CNET via Judy McRae

Too much choice, too little time—it's a constant theme of the information age. There are 60,000 apps available for the iPhone, but the benefits of using personally relevant apps can almost be negated by the amount of time it takes to discover them. 16apps is a new web service designed to streamline the process. The service scours users' Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed or LastFM accounts for information about their hobbies, interests, lifestyle, character and location. It then uses the data to make personalised app recommendations. For instance, if it detects messages or links on a user's profile related to politics, it may recommend an app like "Political Tweets"; if it finds swear words, it has been known to recommend "Rude Ringtones".

Although the functionality of the app has had a mixed reception among the social media crowd, the value in the concept is clear. As consumers experience an explosion of choice in more and more areas of life, recommendation engines are becoming indispensable tools. What makes 16apps particularly interesting is that it doesn't require previous interaction with users in order to discover what they (are) like, since it makes use of openly available data that they've already shared, painting a full picture of their 'digital personality'. It creates an interesting challenge for brands: how to mine the data in a relevant way, without being intrusive or spammy.

Website: www.16apps.com
Contact: info@16apps.com

While the web is disrobing many businesses in the name of transparency, the City of San Francisco is happy to expose itself. A month since the launch of DataSF.org, a public archive of government data, Mayor Gavin Newsom has announced that the site will now showcase applications which manipulate that data to make it more useful and accessible to the city's residents. Inspired by the success of Apple's iTunes App Store and Facebook's open developer platform (60,000 and 350,000 apps respectively), writes Mayor Newsom, San Francisco is encouraging democratic participation by “giving residents the tools to build the kind of government that works for them.”

A number of apps are already online, with the new showcase expected to stimulate many more creations. Among those currently available, EcoFinder helps residents find out where their nearest recycling services are located, while Cabspotting—a project by the Exploratorium interactive science museum—displays a real-time map of cab locations in San Francisco.

It's not the first step the tech-centric Bay Area has made towards ‘Gov 2.0’—in June we reported on their Twitter service for civil complaints. But this latest effort could mark the start of a sea-change in the way governments provide public information services. Don't let your local government miss the boat!

Website: www.datasf.org/showcase
Contact: www.datasf.org/showcase/?page_id=115

Spotted by: Duncan Rickelton