SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ASSOCIATING VIRTUAL CONTENT RELATIVE TO REAL-WORLD LOCALES

Aspects of the invention provide techniques and systems for delivering geographically-relevant content to a mobile device. Geolocation and orientation data is taken from the mobile device, including directional orientation and a vertical angle of the mobile device as it is being pointed at a physical locale. Based on the geolocation and orientation data, an angular field of view is identified relative to a real-world coordinate system. Geospatial data describing the field of view is transmitted to a central server, which, based on geospatial coordinates of pre-defined virtual locales identifies the spatially corresponding virtual locale(s) and sends spatial definitions and structurally-organized content related to the virtual locale(s) back to the device. Users provide input signals to the mobile device to indicate navigational commands related to the content, and the display of the content on the device is iteratively updated based on the input signals and detected changes in the geolocation and orientation data of the device.