On a side note, I was looking at info on Layar (the cell phone app) the other day, and I couldn’t help but wish that it allowed people to post text messages, in a “layar” designed for that purpose, as a fun real-world online-community feature, or maybe even location-based forum threads!
Which would allow for things like: Posting reviews on the restaurants or other places you’ve been, leaving comments in GPS-tied locations almost anywhere you please, or even posting follow-up comments to other people’s messages.

I’m sure such a thing would be easily possible with what we’ve currently got, but someone just has to design some cool software to do it, first. =/ Wish I had enough ability to do it myself. lol

This is a bigger question for content other than advertising. Think about how unhappy Scientology would be if Anonymous could post stuff all over their buildings.

It’s too old and too limited a standard for AR… But the concept of channels/layers/visions is still a VERY good idea for AR. It allows for privacy, sharing, public elements, etc, and it allows you to turn off things you DON’T want to see.
I just finished reading Rainbows End, and I hope someday the AR standards will be something like that, where you can select which layers/visions/channels will be visible, any time you want.

In this way, we can keep problems like spam, and over-intrusive advertisements, at bay. There would be public channels for various publicly-accessible necessities, and that could include virtual billboards… But remember, property ownership STILL holds valid in an Augmented Reality world. Advertisers can’t put ads where property owners don’t want them, obviously.

Along with the public stuff, you could have private channels, with various sharing access levels. So you can share stuff with your friends, or not, and only those people could see it, or just you.

Also, if you’ve seen Dennou Coil, in it certain real-world property/locations, which are owned by private groups, are not accessible by public AR applications/things. Which works well for the advertisement thing.

will prior art prevent this patent to be granted?

http://layar.com/api

The only way that would happen would be if the AR platform client itself were ad supported (like many free IM clients.) In that case open standards are actually in your favor because anyone is free to develop an open source alternative to the ad-heavy commercial client you’re using.

AR may suffer from becoming the web – adverts and pop-ups everywhere – unless there are multiple platforms. I don’t want AR to be pervasive, I want it to be immersive. And nothing will annoy my walk-to-work-playing-a-spy-game more than being targetted by WalMart or Sony for in-game adverts which are visible because I’m using a standardised platform and interpreter.

I see the need for commonalities. I just don’t trust the folk who have the power to make it common.