Forget the Glasses

You have probably not noticed, the Pokeman Go phenomenon is off the news,  but it is still here. IEEE Spectrum reports that the broad concept is still rumbling.   And companies like Niantic and Magic Leap are showing us how to truly augment reality, even without the glasses.   Will I ultimately expect reality to be seamlessly, and indistinguishably inter-layered with its augmentation?

Augmented Reality: Forget the Glasses
While we waited for a Magic Leap, Pokémon Go walked off with the AR crown   by  Tekla S. Perry  ...

Gartner on Augmented Marketing Reality

In the Gartner Marketing Blog.  Good piece,   See my posted piece yesterday on an impressive Hololens demo. The idea is a decade old, we tested it then, but the technology has now evolved to usability now.  It will require some big events to launch it, and Pokemon was not enough and faded too fast. ....

Our Augmented Marketing Reality
By Noah Elkin | November 18, 2016 

Chances are that you’re one of the 100+ million users who have downloaded and experimented with Pokémon Go. But even if you haven’t thrown a Poké Ball into a stranger’s yard to catch a Charmender, you’ve no doubt witnessed friends, family members or coworkers heads-down in their smartphones, engrossed in Niantic’s popular augmented reality (AR) game.

If so, you’ve caught a glimpse of the future of commerce. By the end of 2017, Gartner predicts (client subscription required), one in five leading global retail brands will use AR to enhance the shopping process — by layering digital information — text, images, video and audio — on top of the physical world. .... " 

Baidu AI, Augmented Reality and The Du Series

Note also Baidu's work on Virtual Assistants.   Its a natural connection to AR, since the augmentation can include required levels of assistance.  Don't see why other practitioners of the space do not combine the two.   The Pokemon explosion has alerted people to the possibilities of visual augmentation.    Another layer of augmentation is possible today.

Baidu Is Bringing Intelligent AR to the Masses
An augmented-reality system powered by computer vision and deep learning will add an extra layer to the real world for millions of people.   by Jamie Condliffe   

The Chinese Internet giant Baidu has announced a new AR platform that will allow people to make use of the technology from within many of the company’s own apps.

The system, called DuSee, is claimed to make use of "sophisticated computer vision and deep learning" to “understand the 3-D environment, and create virtual objects that have rich interactions with the user and the real world.” The platform seems to sit somewhere between basic AR systems, like those used in Pokémon Go, and more advanced technologies, such as Google’s Tango. The former simply drops animations onto a device’s screen to make it look like they’re in situ without any analysis of the real world; the latter uses special 3-D camera technology to map the local environment and overlay visual graphics.

Instead, DuSee seems to make use of a smartphone’s single camera, using computer vision software to detect and interpret what it sees in order to add a layer of extra information for the user  ... " 

See also Duer, DuLight and DuSee ...  Apparently other Du- efforts of Baidu.

Pokemon Go and Retail

Is Pokemon Go the new phenomenon, and will it bring augmented reality mainstream?   I do remember when this was expected of 4 Square too.   Interesting emerging stats in Adweek article below: 

" .... Nintendo's surprise hit Pokémon Go mobile app is going gangbusters, increasing the gaming company's value by $7 billion.

The location-based game, which came out Thursday, uses augmented reality to place Pokémon characters in the real world for users to find and collect. The mobile app became immensely popular almost immediately and is already causing small businesses to tweak their in-store marketing. Tech vendor Similar web predicts the app will amass more daily active users than Twitter in the coming days.  .... " 

And more about location than augmented reality, in Time,

Pokemon Go Explodes

Pokemon has been around for a long time.   We examined the brand long ago.   The idea of using augmented reality to create games that overlapped the real world with images to create quest missions is also an old idea.  But the idea has never clicked, until now.  It has been building  to humorous, and sometimes dangerous effect.  With little or no promotion.  See introduction in 2015.  Even Advertisers are noticing.   Forbes explains it.   In AdAge:

Pokémon Go Goes Viral With No Big Marketing Blitz
Game Could Be Opportunity for Retailers to Sponsor 'Pokéstops'
By Maureen Morrison   ....    " 

Augmented Gaming. Linking Location and Wearable

Location expands beyond retail to gaming.  Wearable makes it always available.  New kinds of Augmentation.  Augmented gamification?

Pokémon GO app announced with GPS support and Fitbit-like wearable ...
"... The Pokémon Company has announced a new mobile game for iOS and Android called Pokémon GO, which will be a free app that will work in conjunction with GPS and a new wearable Pokémon device called Pokémon GO Plus.

“Travel between the real world and the virtual world of Pokémon with Pokémon GO for iPhone and Android devices,” the site for the new game says. “With Pokémon GO, you’ll discover Pokémon in a whole new world—your own! Pokémon GO will use real location information to encourage players to search far and wide in the real world to discover Pokémon.  ... "