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Pokémon Go, the wildly popular augmented reality game created by Niantic, was not just a fun pastime for millions of players worldwide. It was actually a scheme to collect data that would be used to develop an artificial intelligence (AI)-based competitor to Google Maps.
Niantic, the secretive parent company behind Pokémon Go, launched the game in 2016 and quickly amassed a huge following. Players were encouraged to roam around their cities and towns in search of virtual creatures known as Pokémon. What many people did not realize, however, was that every step they took was helping Niantic gather valuable information about their surroundings.
By strategically placing virtual PokéStops and Gyms at various locations, Niantic was able to capture images and scans of places that were not even covered by Google’s Street View. This data would later be used to create a detailed 3D map of streets, parks, businesses, and other points of interest.
But how does Niantic turn these images into a useful navigation system? The answer lies in their Visual Positioning System (VPS), which uses a single image taken from a phone to determine its precise location and orientation. By combining millions of scans collected from Pokémon Go players around the world, Niantic has created a massive database of digital replicas of real-world locations.
As Niantic explains in a blog post, this data is essential for training their neural networks, which are responsible for compressing thousands of images into detailed maps. By analyzing the similarities between different scans of the same location, the AI can accurately pinpoint a user’s exact location based on a single image.
The company has now amassed scans of over 10 million locations worldwide, with new scans being added at a rate of one million per week. With this wealth of data at their disposal, Niantic believes that they can revolutionize autonomous systems, navigation, and augmented reality products.
For example, the VPS technology has already been used to optimize walking paths between two locations and predict user behavior based on their routines. This level of precision and accuracy would not have been possible without the massive amount of data collected from Pokémon Go players.
So, the next time you play Pokémon Go and capture a cute little creature on your phone screen, remember that you are also contributing to the development of a cutting-edge AI navigation system. Niantic’s ambitious project is not just about catching Pokémon; it’s about mapping the world in unprecedented detail and using that data to shape the future of technology. Who knows what other surprises Niantic has in store for us in the near future? The possibilities are truly endless.
