Yesterday, after almost of year of cruel teasing and prodding, gadget hounds finally got an up-close look at the , a highly anticipated Augmented Reality application for mobile phones, named iPhone and Android-based phones.

Tech-man-about-town Nobi Hayashi was one of the lucky ones to attend the event at Loewe, a Spanish fashion ship in Tokyo¡¯s Ginza. As his video shows, Sekai Camera users view their surroundings through the iPhone screen, which displays ¡°Air Tags¡± floating in an overlay of reality. Tapping a tag brings up relevant info about the onscreen object.? At Loewe, visitors were able to learn more about high-end products (and we can imagine, some folks might need a lot of persuading.)

Wedding the iPhone¡¯s GPS and video capabilities, the app¡¯s creators, Tonchidot Corporation, appear to be targeting retailers in search of a new gimmick, but the camera¡¯s uses aren¡¯t purely commercial. For instance, you could leave a personal review of a restaurant or consult the reviews of previous patrons.? People visiting a new city could look up historical information about buildings that interest them from the local tourist office. In fact, Tonchidot is already aligning itself with a very interesting

But wait! There¡¯s more! Behold Air Tagging, features include Air Filters (to weed out visual clutter); Air Shouts (to users within a 300 meter radius), Air Pocket (for saving those tags) and even Air Voice (for an audio recording).

So you missed the real-world debut of Sekai Camera on the iPhone? All is not lost. People attending , being held Sept. 24-26, will also get a chance to give it a spin.

While the iPhone interface?¡ª with its floating tags ?¡ª looks incredible, but it should be noted that are already in on the Augmented Reality act. And let¡¯s be honest, when it comes to global reach, an open-source system feeding off of Google Maps, is hard to beat.

I have to wonder if the Tonchidot develops are fans of ¡°.¡± In this futuristic anime drama, a group of students develop an app that gives users information about the world and includes face recognition software for identifying people in their vicinity. Likewise, in , a near-future world is envisioned in which users experience augmented reality and play with virtual objects via special glasses. Perhaps Sekai World¡¯s creators have already considered these possibilities, which is why they¡¯ve chosen to exhibit at Tokyo Game Show.

No details yet as to when Japan can download this hot new way to see the world. For now, we¡¯ll just have to be happy with ¡°coming soon.¡±