A slew of articles came out this week after Reuters interviewed John Hanke where he discusses Niantic’s use of their games to start mapping spaces for the virtual world.  These AR maps would start in areas like parks and plazas, which I assume could be due to the fact that cars mapping the roads can’t get into these spaces to do the mapping for them.

We’ve mentioned on previous shows, Escher Reality, that Niantic acquired earlier this year.  They have created a cross-platform AR framework similar to Apple’s ARKit and Google’s ARCore, which the notable feature that it is cross-platform, which the other two are not.

It’s an exciting time for the AR world, and Ingress. It once again highlights the need to keep the data that Niantic has acquired safe from competitors. They have already shown how profitable sharing the data created from Ingress already is with Pokemon Go and Soon to be released, Harry Potter: Wizard’s Unite.  I can’t imagine what having maps of interior spaces and the ability to manipulate and share these will be.  From, gaming, to construction there are many use cases for such a technology.

How do you feel about this?  We’ve always been helping them grow their database, which makes the game better for us.  What do you think about growing this new technology?  What new mechanics do you envision they could create from this within Ingress itself?  Portals on different floors? Vertical Link Lasers?

2 Responses

  1. Link Lasers – YEAH!
    The only issue I can see with internal spaces mapping is that they change more often than exterior spaces. With the present exterior mapping in use right now there are many examples of landmarks, statues and other features that have changed or have been removed completely without being reflected in the present AR maps. I think before Niantic starts internal mapping they need to work on an effective way to maintain and keep the current exterior mapping current.

  2. It could expand the portal network, allow side by side portals for areas with cool and reasonable portals right next to each other. Link lasers… dunno. It depends on how that will look. I do admit I don’t fully get the concept of having AR mapping
    But, having portals on multiple floors… that could make running the portal map of Mall of America better.

    I trust Niantic to not screw this up. Maybe I’m a bit silly in trusting in that, but there’s no one else to have trust in.

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