President Obama Debuts White House AR App

The Obama Administration has teamed with the White House Historical Association and Nexus Studios to produce an augmented reality (AR) app creating a 3D video of the White House that pops up out of a dollar bill.

The free app is now available for iPhones or iPads at the Apple Store and for Android phones and tablets on Google Play.

The administration has been all about whizbang tech, whether it was allowing Google Street views of White House rooms to streaming events to creating its own White House online news program.

The app is billed as using AR to "to educate and inspire Americans to learn all about what the People’s House stands for." It compresses a year—from the iconic Easter Egg Roll to a State Arrival ceremony to a snowman on the lawn to fireworks—into a handheld device.

That comes as a new resident—President-elect Donald Trump—prepares to move in, though how much time he will spend there versus his New York digs remains an open question.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.