Reality keeps getting weirder--or at least augmented

U.K. startup Blippar has created a powerful augmented reality app it's showcasing at CES.

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Paul Sloan is editor in chief of CNET News. Before joining CNET, he had been a San Francisco-based correspondent for Fortune magazine, an editor at large for Business 2.0 magazine, and a senior producer for CNN. When his fingers aren't on a keyboard, they're usually on a guitar. Email him here.

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Paul Sloan

Jan. 10, 2012 6:31 p.m. PT

Augmented reality is far from mainstream--but a couple of exhibitors at CES are working hard to change that.

Aurasma, which is part of HP's Autonomy business, showed off its 3D augmented reality app. And today I caught up with a London-based startup called Blippar, which is set up at CES' Eureka Park.

Blippar, which last week raised an undisclosed amount from Qualcomm Ventures, has been in technical development for a year and just launched in August. It has about 30 partners in the U.K, and is working hard to sign up more and break into the U.S.

"Content is the key," said Stephen Shaw, a business development manager with Blippar

It works like this: You load your smart phone or iPad with the Blippar app, then point the camera at the "B" that's on its partners' content and the magic begins. Labels for food display recipes, or coupons. Movies play. Magazines come to life.

Blippar is currently running a campaign with Nike and a British newspaper in which you point your phone's camera at the "Bs" beside the athletes and quick movies and other information appears. Shaw showed me one example where pointing the iPad at the content created an interactive game.

Here's a video demonstration Shaw did for me.