Goyal sees AR taking over YouTube tutorial videos. Its combination of reality and technology could make it useful in areas in which VR couldn't be. However, gaming is just beginning for AR. In contrast, the market for AR is touted at a whopping $79.77 billion (approx `5.3 thousand crore source: ). AR, however, has already adapted itself to smartphone technology," says Vitek Goyal, CEO, Pixeltek Gaming Solutions, a Mumbai-based VR developer.Īs of July 2016, the net worth of the global VR industry is expected to reach only $33.90 billion (approx `2.8 thousand crore) by 2022. "The massive headsets have stayed almost the same since they were first introduced. Its biggest drawback, though, is it's a safety hazard: once immersed in the virtual world, users lose touch with their immediate surroundings, causing a threat of accidents and injury. But it remains clunky, makes you look silly, and costs extra. Developers have been pouring money into it, and every second phone manufacturer is coming out with a VR headset. Which is exactly where VR (virtual reality) failed. What it's done, however, is to bring AR into the mainstream, and make it accessible. Perhaps the fact it engaged the gaming community, and brought in non-gamers: '90s kids who'd grown up on it. What made Pokémon Go stand apart, then? Perhaps the nostalgia. Players are required to walk to cultural landmarks in their locality (aided by GPS) and save the world from an alien invasion.Īnother gaming giant, Sony PlayStation, launched the Playroom - a compilation of multiple mini-augmented reality games - also in 2013. A massive success, but only among serious gamers, it converts real-world structures into gaming arenas. Google's app, World Lens, is utilitarian, and great for travelling abroad: it translates signs in 25 popular languages real-time on your phone screen when you hold your camera up to them.Īgain, the developers of Pokémon Go, Niantic Labs (began as an internal start-up at Google, before going independent), developed another game in 2013: Ingress. One of the earliest and most widely-used examples of AR is the QR code: you scan a barcode, and your phone provides additional information. This isn't, however, the first application - or game, even - to use AR. So, all those local monsters are being caught on hacked versions. Mind you, as far as India is concerned, we're yet to get an official version. You're finding them at Bandstand, and Juhu Beach, inside Siddhivinayak Temple, and at Central Park, New York. You're not navigating through a game world in search of these creatures. What makes this one different is augmented reality (AR). But Nintendo (the game developers) has had games out in the past. Sure, the popularity of the Pokémon anime series among '90s kids helps. And your basic aim is to catch fictional pocket monsters (therefore, Poké-mons). You get to role-play as Ash, Misty and Brock - the protagonists of the '90s anime series with a cult following. Since its launch on July 6, it was (officially) downloaded more than 10 million times - on both Android and iOS - in just the first week. The massively multiplayer online (MMO) game, Pokémon Go, has invaded our phones, and our otherwise fickle attention spans. All in a bid to catch a Squirtle or a Bulbasaur. A generation allegedly made lazy and unsocial because of smartphones and technology, is now getting out, bonding, and clocking serious kilometres every day. Much to the confusion (and disappointment) of the rickshaw drivers and bystanders at Bandstand, eyes glued to phones or tablets, the group started walking its way through Bandra: up the steps of Mount Mary Church, past Mehboob Studios, and then onward through Hill Road.īut what could have looked extremely bizarre had it happened a month ago, is now beginning to look like normal activity around the world. There were even a couple of boys who'd come all the way from Vapi (Gujarat). There was a group of friends - young software developers - who'd taken the local train from Mira Road. There were school kids, as young as seven, who'd convinced their parents to drive them down from Santacruz. Around 9pm on the evening of July 16, Saturday, 40-odd youngsters flocked outside the Taj Lands End hotel in Bandra.
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