Augmented Reality is already heavily used for military-, medical-, and industry-related purposes, and is slowly making its way into more commercial and entertainment-related fields. One example is of course, Google Glasses, which aims to integrate Augmented Reality into our everyday lives. Not as ambitious, there are other more “basic” applications that use AR such as Amazon Flow.

Flow, developed by Amazon-subsidiary A9 Innovations, has been available for iOS since last November, but has only just arrived to the Google Play Store. Features of the app include:

• Can identify “tens of millions” of books, DVDs, Video games, and packaged goods like toys, games, and boxes of cereal. All you have to do is point and shoot with your phone camera.
• Uses “continuous scan technology” to automatically recognize items available on Amazon.com.
• Will overlay received product information using Augmented Reality.
• New information will automatically be received if you move your camera from one product to the next.
• Audio or video clips for some products, such as movie trailers if scanning a DVD cover, are also available.
• Product details can be shared over e-mail or Twitter. Easy purchase from Amazon is also an option.
• “History” feature let's you keep track of searches, sorted by date, category, name, and scan type.
• Can also be used to scan UPC barcodes and QR codes.

Some user comments suggest that Google Goggles is more functional and is better at identifying products. but the Augmented Reality features makes for a “more fun” experience, and the instant shopping option via Amazon is a huge plus point as well. The “scan, check rating, buy,” system means shopping has never been easier.

Unfortunately, it looks like the application download is available only to US consumers for now but that will hopefully change soon. If you want to try out Amazon's Flow, you can download it for free from the Amazon App Store here, or for the Google Play Store here.

What are your thoughts? Do you think the AR features of Flow make a big difference? Will you be downloading Flow? If you've already used Flow or are planning to do so, let us know your experience in the comments section below.