There are dinosaurs in my living room!

The ASUS Zenfone AR is the first smartphone I’ve used with integrated Project Tango technology. That’s a mouthful of jargon for, “it’s got really cool augmented reality apps”.

If you’re not familiar with augmented reality, think of it as a blend between the real world and an imaginary world. Better yet, imagine looking at the world through your smartphone’s camera but seeing things that appear to be there, but that aren’t really there.

Take the Dinosaurs Among Us app, for example, which allows you to add animated dinosaurs to your camera’s view. But unlike adding a simple dinosaur stamp to a photo, these dinosaurs seemingly come to life. And if you walk around the room with your Zenfone AR in hand, the view of the dinosaur will rotate just as it would in real life.

Here’s a super quick video of a velociraptor I added to the coffee table in my living room using the Dinosaurs Among Us app on the Zenfone AR:

If you can not see the embedded video above please use the following link: Dinosaurs Among Us – Velociraptor

More than just dinosaurs

While adding dinosaurs to your living room is fun, it’s not all that practical. Luckily, you can do a lot more than play with dinosaurs using the Zenfone AR.

For example, you can use the Wayfair or the Lowe’s Vision app to not only shop for items for your home, but also to see exactly how an item would look in your house. Like the look of that new end table? With a few button presses, you can see exactly what it would look like in your own home.

Or you can use the Measure app to measure the length of your sofa or kitchen table.

You can view a full list of the Project Tango featured apps in the Google Play Store.

Note: The ASUS Zenfone AR in this review was provided to me by Verizon Wireless and can be purchased at your local Verizon Wireless store or at www.verizonwireless.com.