It seems that Nokia is planning on developing a mobile application that allows one to look behind buildings, much like an X-Ray machine. Nokia has teamed up with developers from South Australia to achieve this piece of science fiction.

This technology is called Augmented Reality and practically, it employs nothing more than the phone’s camera and google’s databases.

What it does:

You basically have to focus your camera on a building and this software gives you a view of what’s behind it.

How it works:

It works basically by creating a 3D model of the place by looking up google earth and google streetview. It then projects the rendered image of what’s behind the building. GPS is used to find out the user’s exact position while Digital compass can be used to smooth out other irregularities like orientation.

The driving force behind this initiative, Dr. Christian Sandor, has stated that we might be seeing a complete software in about two years.

Incidentally, Dr. Sandor is also known for two other amazing technologies- Meltvision and Distortvision.

Meltvision is much like Augmented Reality except that a building melts away to reveal the image behind it.

Distortvision allows us to take images of objects which are not in the line of sight of the camera.

For more on this, go here.