'Pokémon Go' players have been unknowingly training delivery robots
11 hours ago
- #crowdsourced-data
- #delivery-robots
- #augmented-reality
- Pokémon Go's augmented reality technology is being repurposed to aid delivery robots through Niantic's Visual Positioning System (VPS).
- Niantic Spatial partnered with Coco Robotics to use VPS for precise navigation of delivery robots in areas where GPS is unreliable.
- VPS was trained on over 30 billion images from Pokémon Go players, enabling accurate location pinpointing by analyzing landmarks and surroundings.
- Data from Pokémon Go's 'Field Research' feature and 'Pokémon battle arenas' helped create detailed 3D models of real-world locations.
- The collaboration aims to improve last-mile delivery efficiency, especially in urban areas with tall buildings that disrupt GPS signals.
- Niantic's long-term goal is to build a 'living map' of the world, continuously updated with new data from VPS-equipped robots.
- This repurposing of crowdsourced data highlights how user-generated content can be leveraged for unforeseen applications years later.