AR and Geocaching explain how Pokémon GO works?

November 5, 2016 November 5, 2016

The Pokémon GO was launched in five countries officially but has swept the whole world. It was declared biggest mobile game in US history, beating Candy Crush Saga, Clash Royale, Draw Something etc. To some extent, it was also able to shake the social networks like Tinder, Twitter, and even Facebook. It is based on augmented reality and geocaching, giving a twist to the mobile gaming in world.

How it works?

Pokémon GO is a free-to-play location-based Augmented Reality (AR) game. As per the rules of the game, the Players walk around outdoors searching for Pokémons, which are magical anime creatures having special powers. Herein, the user has to capture, train and battle these Pokémons. The bigger your Pokémon squad becomes, the stronger one is in the game. Pokémon GO uses the persons device’s GPS in order to track the personslocation and find new Pokémons, and then uses the phone’s camera to virtually superimpose them over the surroundings. The game then switches on the camera, and the user will see the Pokémon appear right in front of them, as if it is happening in reality. It gives a feeling of real world. Thereafter, the user must throw the ‘Pokeball’ at the creature, and try to capture it.

However, it is necessary for the user to understand the anime. The anime’s protagonist is Ash Ketchum. He travels with his friends Misty and Brock to catch Pokémons and fight Poke-gym owners in order to become the Pokémon master. Once the higher level is reached, the user must travel to a different geographical location in order to fight other Pokémon masters to get control of the gym.

Augmented Reality (AR)

AR becomes important due to the popular game Pokémon GO using it in order the creatures to life. In AR, images/information which aregenerated from a computer are projected on to real-life objects or surroundings. This allows the users to read data and/or interact with them. AR is quite different from Virtual Reality (VR). In VR, the user is transported to another world, and is expected to play within this realm. Other examples of AR are as follows: