Having the entire planet in 3D can help a lot in many sectors, including video games, where Augmented Reality continues to grow as a technique to increase immersion.
And if we talk about AR in games, we have to talk about Niantic, creator of Pokémon Go, a company that wants to create augmented reality experiences on a planetary scale.
To achieve this they will add a function to encourage players to create and upload 3D scans of real world locations. It has also just acquired the mapping company AR 6D.ai for an undisclosed sum, with the goal of creating a dynamic, three-dimensional map of the world to enable new types of AR experiences.
This article talks more about procurement and how 6D.ai can help you achieve this.
But it is not the only company with that goal in mind. Recall that in February Facebook acquired Scape Technologies, an AR startup that was creating a three-dimensional map of the entire world, and Microsoft’s Minecraft Earth AR mobile game promotes the same type of AR game on a planetary scale.
Take a look at the AR world in 2015:
Niantic’s history is interesting. At first it was called Keyhole Inc, and was acquired by Google in 2004, being fundamental for the creation of Google Maps. In 2010, Keyhole changed its name to Niantic and focused on gaming, and it remained a part of Google until 2015, when it became an independent company again. In 2012 they launched the famous Ingress, a game with which they got the necessary data to later create the best known Pokémon Go or the recently launched Harry Potter: Wizards Unite.
In December 2019, Niantic raised funds and reached a valuation of 3.9 billion dollars, so they have the ability to transform the world with Augmented Reality, and not only in the video game market.
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