Real Note turns the street into a newsfeed

The world is certainly not a disc, but perhaps a Pinboard: The app Real Note wants to bring newsfeeds, otherwise known in social media, to the street with augmented reality.

Behind the app, launched in 2019 and called Real Note, is a Start-up from Bonnwhich has set itself the goal of building a kind of social network for augmented reality.

Embassies without borders

The idea behind it is simple: messages that you see everywhere in the real world in the form of graffiti, take-down notices and poster messages, etc. are to be made available via the augmented reality app (for the time being) to the public. Android can be created virtually and linked to real places. Users can pin their virtual messages to places in the real world and thus leave statements, graphics, selfies or the like for posterity.

A virtual graffiti on the façade of a house, a selfie of a couple in love at the location of their first date or a 3D emoji on a landmark - there are almost no limits to creativity here.

Other users or friends who visit places with so-called Notes see the messages and can comment on them or place their own posts next to them. Notes in the vicinity can be displayed and discovered via a map. Users can follow other users and view and discover their friends' Notes via their feed. Real Note uses machine learning and neural networks to ensure that the notes are reliably displayed where they were posted.

Real Note is still a long way from being the Facebook of augmented reality, but one thing is already all too easy to visualise: virtual advertising signs of local retailers, location-based brand advertising or branded locations. The (virtual) world could quickly go from pinboard to billboard. Maybe soon no one will even think of carving their name and date into trees, landmarks and cultural goods of all kinds! With this step to improve the world, they would have more than doubly earned the digital Startup Award.