1. A method of interacting with a physical environment comprising: configuring a mobile device to operate as an image processing platform; obtaining, by the image processing platform, a digital representation including an image of the physical environment; identifying, by the image processing platform, an object based at least in part on a visual appearance derived from the digital representation; determining, by the image processing platform, a position or an orientation of the object with respect to the physical environment and relative to the mobile device at the time that the image was captured; and enabling an interaction with a computer-system based software application as a function of the position or orientation of the object.