As part of a project, I've looked into technology that allow a person with a portable device to somehow connect with where they are. What I mean by this is say a person is walking down the street, and is curious about some building with a unique architecture. This person notices a barcode looking thingy like the one on below. The person takes a picture using their smart phone and are automatically taken to a webpage about that building. 'Real'space connecting to 'mobile'space. Now its easy to argue about what is real, and I would personally say these are part of the same social space, etc. etc. But the idea is to connect to physical locations through mobile technology.
This is called a 2D barcode, and it encodes a website url. Special software is installed on your phone that can decode this and take you using your phone's browser to the url. The way I see this, is it is all part of the location based services push and there are really two strains. One I call wireless (somewhat misleading), the other is physical. The wireless category ties location to your mobile phone through the mobile's built-in GPS unit. This is a prime example here. Kit Eaton calls this augmented reality, but I step away from a term like reality. Basically the software on this device tracks your location, and through a simple spatial query identifies points of interest near you (NRU). Obviously I am glossing over the massive database of businesses that would be needed to do this. Presumably this would work best in a largeish city. The physical based technologies come in at least two modes - the aforementioned barcodes, and RFID technology. I call these physical because they require attaching something to the location physically. In the barcode case, it is the barcode, but the RFID requires a magnetic device and the device to read it. This is all pretty cool, and part of me can't waits till I'm in the USA to get the technology. It's probably available here, but then Darwin's so small it doesn't matter.
Now, what happens if you are in the middle of nowhere, and want to all tourists/visitors to learn about that location? Well, honestly, I think the first two are out (gps/wireless, and barcodes). They require too much - internet reception, phone with camera, phone with barcode reading software, and, well, a phone. So then is it RFID or nothing? That requires a device with a reader attached, something probably not everyone has. So that leaves renting the device and the joys that come with that...
Either way in the next couple years we'll probably see these things become standard technology. Especially if smartphone prices begin to drop.