(If you have an Android or iPhone 4 mobile, scan this barcode...) Imagine a time in the not so distant future when you might put on some 3D projecting contact lenses, with inbuilt compass, altitude reader, GPS, wifi, and motion tracker. Then, as you wander through the world, then lenses allows anything to appear in your environment, as if they are really there – they augment your perceived reality.

So, on your normal afternoon saunter to the shop you now encounter monsters to battle with at the bottom of your road whilst being serenaded by your new favourite indie folk band on the opposite side of the street. Mysterious princesses try to seduce you on the zebra crossing, whilst trying to avoid an actual zebra migration which you see as a live 3D feed from Tanzania all around you. As you enter the shop you can superimpose Mr Potato Head ears, moustaches and hats onto the shopkeeper as he tries to shortchange you, and on leaving the shop, you get irritated by the virtual advert projected onto the path in front of you and so decide, with a gentle tap to your forehead, to change the channel and instead transport yourself to another world, by changing the sky to deep auburn, as epic spaceships buzzing overhead between a few other ghostly worlds that now seem to hang next to the moon. This is ‘augmented reality’.

Well, it isn’t yet, but it could be. Pull yourself back a few years to now and the first Augmented Reality apps are starting to appear on people's phones. So you are not altering your perception of reality through some 3D contact lenses, but rather by looking through the camera on your phone, as your phone, by knowing where you are and what direction your pointed, can alter what you see by downloading and updating the relevant data as you move, from the internet. One of the main apps for this is called Layar (www.layar.com).

Urusen don’t know a great deal about Augmented Reality, but we are now the first band in the world to have an augmented reality band website!! Well, technically the first band to use it were I think the Rolling Stones, where fans could place virtual posters for gigs on buildings that could only be viewed through your camera on your phone. Then Muse got in on the act, making an app that concert goers could hold up to the stage and see objects flying out from where the band were performing. And so Urusen are the THIRD band in the world to use Augmented Reality, and the first to get a proper band website on the Layar app. Sweeeet!

It’s still in its early stages, and give us a month or so to get all the functionality up, but basically, if you have a new iPhone or Android phone, you can search for “urusen” in the Layar app, and then you will be able to find out where all the next Urusen gigs are, try on virtual Urusen t-shirts before you buy them, take photos of yourself with the band, as well as all the usual stuff like download wallpapers, listen to music and watch Urusen videos.

So how did Urusen get all so cutting edge all of a sudden? Well, it involved a few pints at The Royal Oak pub in Bath and a guy called Paul Lewis from wemakelayers.com. This is all new to us, so if you have any ideas of good things we could incorporate into the app, let us know.

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