Playing with reality

It is one more step in what is known as augmented reality . It is a game but also a way of interacting with the objects that surround us. It’s a mystery. It is a hidden gem. It is ephemeral art. It is an invisible witness waiting to be revealed. It is a messaging app . We are talking about Traces , a magical App and perhaps one of the most surprising of all we have compiled in this blog. Developed by the neuroscientist Beau Lotto , this application allows you to insert digital content in physical environments. To do this you have to choose any digital content , be it a text, a video, a photo gallery, whatever, and using this App assign it a physical place. Once this is done, the content will be visible only when that place is observed through the application. In reality, what you see is much more, it is a sphere, which contains the digital material, which through augmented reality we are going to “burst” to release the content and enjoy it. Beau Lotto, CEO of Ripple Inc, the developer of Traces, has explained to the magazine New Scientist , that the intention of this App is to still offer more content and information than the rest of the messaging services and even the rest of the social networks. “ Facebook and WhatsApp transmit frequent and out of context information that is of very little information for you, leaving you as a totally passive receiver”. Therefore, “instead of reading tweets in a random location, you can choose the location to add context to your delivery.” With Traces it will be possible to achieve, as Lotto himself defines in the promotion of this App “give your street a soundtrack”, or “tag your living room with a hidden video” opening the possibilities for art in communication . Although at the moment it is only available in the United Kingdom , it will soon make the definitive leap to all screens in the world. The only unsolved problem is that it may happen if several contents are assigned to the same physical space, but this will already be another song about which its creators will have to give explanations.