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Pokémon GO Developer Niantic Teases Future of AR Tech
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
Smartphone game developer Niantic is known for creating augment reality (AR) games such as Pokémon GO, Ingress, and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. The company is continuing to develop its Niantic Real World Platform, and a video highlighting the latest projects debuted on Friday.
The video includes footage from three demos. "Codename: Niantic Occlusion" shows Pikachu and Eevee moving around and behind real-world objects in augmented reality. "Codename: Tonehenge" involves players working together to solve puzzles. "Codename: Neon" is a game in which players move in the real world to collect energy to use to battle other players.
Niantic also said:
Advanced Augmented Reality (AR) requires an understanding of not just how the world looks, but also what it means: what objects are present in a given space, what those objects are doing, and how they are related to each other, if at all. The Niantic Real World Platform integrates contextual computer vision, where AR objects understand and interact with real world objects in unique ways–stopping in front of or behind them, running past them, or maybe even jumping into them. This platform is also particularly focused on innovations in AR that serve Niantic's core mission and values of exploration, exercise, and real-world social interaction. The AR team at Niantic has built new cross-platform AR technology that facilitates high performance shared AR experiences using low-latency AR networking techniques.
The company is planning to offer its AR technology to more developers. Niantic will announce a contest in the near future to offer developers a chance to use its platform.
Niantic launched AR+ functionality (seen right) for the iOS version of its Pokémon GO smartphone game in December. The feature is not yet available for Android devices.
In addition to developing games and AR technology, Niantic is also working with Fuji TV to develop an anime adaptation of its Ingress app.
Sources: Niantic's website, YouTube channel, and Twitter account
