New Delhi: Handset manufacturer Nokia Tuesday launched Nokia City Lens - a free smartphone application to provide information such as location, contact details and reviews about restaurants, shops, hotels and more such places near a mobile user.

"This is one of its kind augmented reality application from Nokia's location service bouquet - it allows you to sense the world around you and discover places by simply holding up your smartphone instead of having to perform web searches," V. Ramnath, director sales, Nokia India, told reporters.

"It basically turns sight into the next interface for searching the world around you. The app then provides information about each building or landmark in the area giving the user an at-a-glance understanding of what restaurants, museums, shops and others places of interest are nearby.”

The free application is available for Nokia Lumia 800, 900 and 710 models.

Through this application, users can also search for places according to the activities that interests them. With one tap they can also make a reservation, or navigate to the location via turn by turn walking map, he said.