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  • Have you been seeing what I’ve been seeing?

  • Like, people walking down the street, staring at their phonesand then stopping, turning

  • around, and going back in the other direction?

  • Or maybe youve seen someone suddenly stop in their tracks and fumble with their coffee

  • while they awkwardly try to swipe at something on their screen.

  • If youve been seeing signs like these, then youve been seeing people playing Pokémon

  • GO.

  • Or maybe youve been one of them like I have been.

  • For those of you who haven’t been consumed by this game yet, a big part of it involves

  • trying to catch as many types of Pokémon as you can. If you know anything about Pokémon,

  • you know that’s what it’s all about. Literally, ‘gotta catchem all!’

  • Pokémon appear in different places, and you can catch them by throwing Pokéballs at them.

  • And there’s places, called PokéStops, where you can collect special items, like more balls.

  • You can also battle other playersPokémon for control of another type of special location,

  • called PokéGyms.

  • But here’s the thing: All of those characters, and places, and objects I just mentioned aren’t

  • just features inside the game itself.

  • The reason people are walking into lampposts and spilling their coffee on sidewalks everywhere

  • is that players can interact with those things in the real world!

  • The world where, presumably, you are now!

  • So what makes Pokemon GOgo?

  • Technology does. Specifically, developers have combined at least three different technologies

  • in a unique way to integrate the game’s characters and objects into our environment.

  • The first key to the tech of Pokemon GO is everyday GPS.

  • Pretty much all of the game is based on your location -- which the game keeps track of

  • using the Global Positioning System.

  • This system pinpoints your location using a receiver inside of your phone, along with

  • a network of 24 different satellites orbiting Earth.

  • These satellites are always sending out signals, broadcasting their exact location.

  • And the receiver inside of your phone picks up the signal from the satellites that are

  • closest to you, and then uses math to figure out where you are relative to those satellites.

  • The game uses this information to keep track of your location -- which it needs to know

  • in order to figure out things like whether youre close enough to a Pokémon to catch

  • it.

  • So, that’s how the game knows where you are.

  • But on the ground, there’s another suite of technology that determines where all of

  • the PokéStops, and gyms can be found.

  • This is the result of data analysis, which has resulted in a geographical database of

  • pretty much every town and city in the world.

  • And it turns out, developers actually did most of this work a few years ago, when they

  • were programming a different game, called Ingress.

  • Ingress centers around special locations, too, called Portals. And those Portals were

  • originally placed at real-life historic landmarks.

  • So developers had to build databases of historic landmarks all over the world.

  • Then they had to write a program that would sort through all of the landmarks to turn

  • them into Portal locations.

  • For a while, Ingress players were also able to suggest new locations for Portals.

  • When it came time to program Pokémon GO, the most popular Portal locations -- that

  • is, the ones used most often by players -- became gyms, and the less popular ones became stops.

  • But, as you mightve heard in the news, there have been a few issues with this, because

  • the databases they used weren’t always up to date.

  • That’s how a family in Massachusetts, for example, ended up with a gym at their house;

  • their house used to be a church — a landmark that wouldve been on the list for Ingress

  • Portals.

  • And the last bit of tech that makes the game possible is arguably even more awesome: augmented

  • reality, or AR -- when computer generated elements are added to your environment.

  • This is different from virtual reality, which you can experience using something like the

  • HTC Vive or Oculus Rift. Those devices aim to completely replace your environment with

  • a simulation.

  • But augmented reality builds on top of what’s already there.

  • AR is still a pretty new technology, but Pokemon GO developers have figured out ways to use

  • it, in order to integrate gameplay into the real world.

  • When you go to catch a Pokémon, for example, the camera on your phone turns on.

  • The game uses the camera to analyze the space around you, and place a sort of projection

  • of the Pokémon in the environment you can see on your screen.

  • Even if you move around a little-- mostly side to side, not like back and forth-- the

  • game compensates, so that the Pokémon stays in the same spot within your environment.

  • So if you see a Spearow sitting at the base of a tree, itll stay at the base of the

  • tree even if you look away from the tree and then come back. It’s still there! It’s-

  • It’s like it’s in the real world and your phone is a portal into this magical land where

  • pocket monsters live!

  • Gym battles also use augmented reality, making it look like the Pokémon are battling on

  • the ground next to you.

  • So it’s this special combination of location-tracking, data analysis, and augmented reality that

  • lets you chase after Pokémon in the real world.

  • And now, if youll excuse me, I saw that there was a Vaporeon in my neighborhood earlier,

  • so I must go.

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Have you been seeing what I’ve been seeing?

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