Royal Mail Delivers Augmented Reality iPhone Stamps

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The Royal Mail is hoping to boost the collectibility of its stamps with augmented reality.

Pointing your iPhone camera at these special-edition stamps featuring the Great British Railways leads you to a video of Bernard Cribbins (that’s Wilfred Mott to you Doctor Who Fans) reading W H Auden’s poem, “Night Mail.”

The Royal Mail isn’t new to these kind of media tie-ins, Auden’s poem was written for a 1930s documentary of the same name about a mail train from London to Scotland.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti6daTBZx00&feature=player_embedded#at=42
To view the video, you need to download augmented reality browser Junaio. It’s gratis on iTunes but the 2.0 version requires at least an iPhone 3GS to work. (There is also an Android version.)

They’re billing it as the world’s first “smart stamp,” the augmented-reality add-on may boost the collectibility of the set of six stamps which retails for £4.60 (about $7).

The guy in the video reminds me of a young Ricky Gervais — while the idea is kind of cool, I guess I’m waiting for the punch line on this.

Would you buy these stamps or other “smart stamps?”

Via 9to5 Mac

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