WITH POKÉMON GO, AUGMENTED REALITY HAS ITS MOMENT
Viral hit featuring collectible creatures puts AR in spotlight
While fans of virtual reality wait for the platform’s breakthrough experience, its cousin augmented reality is having its moment — a cute, brightly colored one that leaves its users with sore feet.
Pokémon Go, a mobile game where players catch Pokémon cartoon creatures in the real world, has put augmented reality into the spotlight in a way that the more immersive, high-profile virtual reality has yet to achieve.
“It’s going to bring (AR) into the consumer domain,” says Gartner analyst Brian Blau.
Pokémon Go features a GPS- enabled map of the player’s realworld surrounding. After tapping on one of the creatures, the app opens up the smartphone’s camera, showing the Pokémon seemingly moving in the real world.
The free-to-play game has achieved viral status after a lateweek launch sent thousands of people into streets, parks and shopping malls this weekend. Players shared their images of Pokémon appearing in random places, from bathrooms to bars to sporting events, plus complaints over sore legs (from all the wandering) and battery drainage.
According to one estimate from research firm SensorTower, the game notched more than 7.5 million downloads on Apple’s App Store and Google Play. It has remained atop both app stores since launching last Thursday.
Whether they could define “augmented reality” or not, by
the end of the weekend, many had experienced it — or watched others stumble around using it.
“It really lets users get familiar with what AR can do,” said Yue Fei, chief technology officer and co-founder of AR firm uSens.
That’s the kind of “killer app” or game experience that can bring a technology or device from obscurity to widespread use. In gaming, Nintendo’s Wii console took off when consumers flocked to play golf and tennis with motions that mimicked real life. Mobile gaming didn’t soar to its current heights without help from the launch of games such as
Angry Birds in 2010. So far, such a game hasn’t transformed virtual reality from a technology sought by avid gamers and technologists, despite billions in investments and high ambitions from Facebook, Samsung and others.
Although those who’ve tried out early VR content have generally liked it — even been wowed by it — none of the VR experiences has been so engaging that it’s broken out of the circles of core users. Some analysts, such as Deutsche Bank’s Ross Sandler, have suggested a “Gap of Disappointment” may be the theme of next year’s consumer tech conferences, as industry watchers ask, “Why are all these VR systems collecting dust?”
With the launch of Pokémon Go, that question may skirt the AR industry — a segment of the AR/VR market that’s forecast to become the dominant force in the alternate-reality landscape. According to Digi-Capital, the VR/ AR market will reach $120 billion by 2020, with $90 billion of that generated by augmented reality.
Much of the focus from AR developers has been on business. It’s the tech behind Google Glass, the smart eyewear shelved by the tech giant and also the tech behind Microsoft’s HoloLens. Startups have developed AR software to help oil rig workers, aircraft mechanics, furniture shoppers and, in the case of Osterhout Design Group, Mini Cooper drivers.
At a recent conference in San Francisco, Lenovo showed off an AR-enabled smartphone that made it easier for consumers to fulfill the useful, but hardly riveting, task of home remodeling.
Gaming is often at the forefront of sea changes in technology, and here augmented reality has also been quietly making its mark, albeit with none of the fanfare that accompanied the rock concert-like unveilings at industry conference E3 last month.
Pokémon Go features a GPS-enabled map of the player’s real-world surrounding. After tapping on one of the creatures, the app opens up the smartphone’s camera, showing the Pokémon seemingly moving in the real world.