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Pikachu: Success of Augmented Reality

The first ever success of augmented reality, Pokémon Go had laid down the benchmark of Smartphone graphics for the whole world. Since it was launched in 2016, the gaming community had walked a collective twelve billion miles in search of the featured characters of the game. This in itself is a remarkable statement.

In spite of this success where was the flaw in its augmented reality? Well if a gamer saw a Pikachu in their camera, anything which passed in front of the camera would make this creature appear on top of the object. This – as minute as it may seem – was the problem which ruined the illusion of a reality in the game.

According to the CEO of Niantic, this was the very fact which made the game’s augmented reality feature fall apart. He said that the very aspect of this reality is to make the gamer think the character is actually there in front of him. Any aspect of the game which sidesteps from reality ruins the whole point the game is trying to make.

Now the developers of the game have acquired a four-man business called Matrix Mill to solve this problem. These four individuals formed their business in the University of London, and according to the developers of the game, have the potential to make the game’s augmented reality perfectly realistic.

Rumor has it that the problem of the overlay which ruins the reality of the game can be solved with the device having two cameras. Each camera will take a different image and synergize both images can give the game the perfectly calculated perception to portray for the gamer. This is exactly how a human being’s brain and eyes coordinate.

Matrix Mill’s software is going to be based on this design. The software will use two cameras to recognize how far off it is and determine whether the character should be portrayed in front of or behind it. The cofounders of Matrix Mill said that the characters of this game will now perfect submerge into your environment. A concept clip has also been shared on the web by the developers of the game as a marketing strategy.

In this video, you can see how Pikachu actually runs around amidst the real-world details portrayed by your camera. You can see it actually hiding behind pots of plants. Now, this is what you call augmented reality!

Niantic is still working on some flickers in the game like placements which are misjudged by the software. They are working hard to achieve the goal of making the software smarter at recognizing any object in terms of depth and other important factors.

Niantic isn’t only working on this project. They are also going to dive into the world of wizardry in their game which will feature Hogwarts. Yes, Harry Potter! How they are going to synergize augmented reality into the world of this very popular series is a totally different story. Stay tuned to find out more!