The Vrijwilligers Centrale Amsterdam (Amsterdam Volunteer Center), is an organization in Amsterdam that helps people find volunteer work anywhere in the city.

Now the organization is making it even easier for people to find volunteer positions by launching their own location-based geo layer on the Layar App. By launching the VCA layer on their mobile device, workers can see the location of job opportunities appear around them with the Layar App’s Augmented Reality features.

“Very few people are aware of the large availability of volunteer jobs and how many people actually do volunteer work,” said Simone Timmer, Communication Advisor for the VCA. “Augmented reality is new and innovative, and Layar was a great way to visualise the proximity of volunteer work in Amsterdam.”

Creating a Geo Layer to benefit the cause was the idea of Geerten van Hooff, the founder of online media agency Taf Media, who also implemented it as a volunteer, Timmer says.

The VCA’s layer features over 1700 positions in the city, and in 2015 the organization helped over 7500 people find volunteer work.

To try it yourself, if you’re in Amsterdam, open the Layar App and search for “VCA”.

Earlier this year we told you about Popcards, a personalized Augmented Reality (AR) greeting card application custom built with Layar technology.

The app, available in U.S., allows anyone to create printed greeting cards that come to life with an AR video experience. The user can simultaneously take a photo and record a personal video. The photo is printed on the greeting card with a personal message. The greeting card can then be scanned using the same Popcards app, bringing the card magically to life.

For the holiday season, Popcards has partnered with the Children’s Cancer Research Fund (CCRF) to donate $1 from each purchase to the charity. Based in the United States, the CCRF is dedicated to eliminating childhood cancer by funding leading-edge research in the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and cure of childhood cancers and blood-related disorders.

“Children’s Cancer Research Fund is near and dear to my heart. As a stage 3 cancer survivor and a CCRF board member, I’m dedicated to helping children and families in their battle with cancer. Popcards is a fantastic new invention that helps people uniquely stay connected, and if it can help in the fight in any way, we are over the moon,” says Stephanie Hansen, Popcards Owner.

Popcards is an amazing example of the power of AR and how the Layar platform can be leveraged to create new, innovative mobile apps and experiences.

When you hear the old advertising adage “sex sells,” you usually associate it with scantily clad women put on display to help sell beer, cars and other items to men. But what “the other half?”

The Charleston Animal Society (CAS) from Charleston, South Carolina, is using this tactic for good by enlisting the help of hunky local firemen (and a few firewomen as well) to spice up their 2015 calendar benefiting Toby’s Fund, the society’s medical fund for abused animals. And best of all, it’s been made interactive with Layar!

Putting a new spin on the infamous “firefighter calendar,” the CAS had the firefighters pose with cute and cuddly rescue dogs and cats. When scanned with the Layar App, each month’s photo comes alive with a video of the firefighter and their furry friend.

The CAS was forced to nearly double its initial print run of 6,000 calendars to 11,000 due to the high demand for the calendar. The society was lucky enough to have their project picked up by popular media outlets, such as the Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, The Daily Mail, the Today Show and more. According to Caroline Eller of the CAS, the society has received orders from around the world, including China, Australia, Norway, Peru, Brazil and Germany.

“Being in the printing industry I am always looking for new ideas and ways to help my clients,” said Don Oswalt of Nelson Printing, who produced the calendar for the CAS. “There was a lot nervousness in the beginning since it was so new to us and not having produced anything with Layar platform before. We are very proud how Layar and its amazing technology has set this calendar apart as a one of a kind.”

To give it a try yourself, head on over to our Client Examples page!

Each year since 2004 during the week before Christmas, Dutch radio station 3FM hosts the Serious Request donation drive to benefit a specific charity chosen for that year. The station’s DJs live for 6 days in a glass house erected in a public square as they broadcast on radio and TV around the clock, drawing big crowds and even bigger donations.

For this year’s fundraiser in the Dutch city of Haarlem, Serious Request has teamed up with AR developers Dutch Rose Media to create interactive AR postcards with their Layar-powered app Smilez. The postcards are being sold for €2, and €1 from each card will be donated to Serious Request.

When scanning one of three different postcards with the Smilez app (it also works with the Layar App), users will see a video play right on the card as it comes to life. One card features a holiday themed greeting, another shows a brief video tour of the city of Haarlem, and the third features imagery from this year’s charity theme, “Hands Off Our Girls.”

The theme of the fundraiser aims to raise money and awareness for female victims of sexual assault during war and conflict. Last year’s event to benefit charities fighting child death from diarrhea (humorously titled “Let’s Clean This Shit Up”) raised over €12 million ($15 million), with roughly half being donated on the final day of the drive, Christmas Eve.

To try it yourself, have a look at the Smilez-enhanced Serious Request postcards. If you’d like to purchase one, you can do so at the Smilez website.

Want to feel safe? Find out if you’re in a safe area with the SpotCrime layer. ReportSee created SpotCrime on the notion that information is power. Next to their website, they launched a paid layer with crime maps, showing crime incident data around you, like crime alerts and reports of shootings, robberies, assaults, thefts, burglaries, arsons and vandalism. We talked to Colin Drane from ReportSee to find out how we can feel safer by using the layer.

Why a Spotcrime layer? Colin: “The SpotCrime layer allows you to see an augmented reality view of the crimes that have happened in their current location. This allows them to be more aware of their surroundings and helps to prevent becoming a victim. This can be especially useful if you are on vacation in an area that you’ve never visited before. It’s important to know what’s going on around you, and to avoid unsafe areas when you can.” What can we user do with it? Colin: “Use the augmented reality view or the list view to learn about crimes in a certain radius around your location. If one of the crime icons is selected, you can read more specific details about the crime event and follow the link to the SpotCrime website.”

‘Why is it worth my $1.95?’ Colin: “It’s only a one time fee, after which you can use the layer at home and any place you travel and become knowledgeable about safe locations. You can’t put a price on peace of mind!” Other things you’d like to share? Colin: “Sign up for free email alerts at www.spotcrime.com”