Beginning with the April edition, a reader can scan selected Western Investor articles or advertisements with their smart phone or tablet and the printed page comes alive with a video, a web page, perhaps a fly-through of a new real estate development or an insider's market report, all from invisible codes embedded in the pages.
Welcome to a new digital dimension as Western Investor merges with augmented reality and retools our Internet experience with more powerful engines for search and navigation. The combination creates the most advanced and extensive source for real estate information in Western Canada.
Augmented reality allows users of Apple iPhone, iPad and Android devices to scan specially created pages in Western Investor by downloading a free Layar (www.layar.com) app.
Readers can bring our pages to life in four steps:
1. Download and open the Layar app on your Apple or Android smartphone or tablet.
2. Hold the device over the page or the image.
3. Tap the "scan" button to reveal enhanced content.
4. Move to another page and repeat.
Western Investor advertisements that features the "Layar" logo contains additional content to help you learn more about the product or service being advertised. With Layar, a realtor print ad can direct a reader to the realtor's web site, to a virtual tour of the listing, to other listings or to a promotional video, as examples. All of the information can be updated, even after Westtern Investor is published.