The Beginnings
The plan for the aforementioned two Platforms
has been in the works since 2018, however it is fairly recently when both of
their plans have begun to pick up steam in their production process. This is
made possible through Niantic’s long-awaited release of Visual Positioning
System or VPS, a location mapping Software for Augmented Reality. The Primary
purpose of VPS would be to ground visually stunning Augmented Reality experiences
to Physical Locations, instead of simply allowing the AR generated content to
aimlessly float through a Phone Camera’s view. In order to power their VPS,
Niantic has sourced Millions of Phone Camera Scans of Real-World Locations
through “Pokémon GO” and “Ingress” players across the World. Currently, the
Company claims to have over 20,000 VPS-activated locations around the World,
which include centimeter-level precise maps for Huge parts of Major Cities such
as London, New York City and Tokyo, among many others. Niantic future plans for
this VPS currently rely on its avid usage through their “Campfire” and “Lightship”
platforms.
Lightship
Conceived around the building of
real-world Metaverse Apps, Lightship will allow its user the opportunity to
transcend the digital and the real world, by giving the users the necessary tools
to marry both of these aspects together in a synchronized reality experience. Lightship
will also include the development of Augmented Reality Display Glasses that
will be fully capable of allowing the Users to be fully aware of where they are
in the Real World, while simultaneously allowing Virtual Elements to interact
with them. This aspect is critical for Niantic, because it enables the Virtual
Elements to remain tethered persistently to Real-World Locations. Niantic is
building these glasses through the advent of Qualcomm’s XR2 hardware. Furthermore,
Lightship will also work side-by-side with Mobile Apps in order to identify
where exactly a User’s Camera is pointed at. It will be able to pick up on the
surfaces and depth of real-world environments such as the Sky or Water, all in
Real-time. With this new technology, Niantic aims to expand the User experience
beyond the GPS factor, as with this new VPS if users scan their location, the
VPS will be fully capable of determining where they exactly are, just like a
GPS. However, where they begin to differ is with the added advantage in VPS, which
will also be capable of showing user-generated experiences grounded in a specific
location. Although tech Giants such as Meta and Apple are already ahead of the curve
with the implementation of this technology, where Niantic hopes to attract a
wider audience is through Lightship’s support for iOS and Android, which the
Company hopes would definingly make Lightship an attractive and easily
accessible proposition for a large majority of its Users.
Campfire
Acting as sort of a Companion Piece to Lightship, Campfire is designed to be a location-based Social Network for Users across the World. Within its capabilities will be the ability to integrate with Future Apps or Games that would go on to use Niantic’s Lightship. The primary purpose of Campfire is to make Augmented Reality in general a much more social experience, which is to be made possible through Campfire’s access to a User’s Account, some which Campfire can tap into a User’s Friends List in order to show their locations on a map, as well as nearby in-app experiences for all to partake. This would allow Users to organize Virtual and Real-life meetups and chat with other people in a group on the go. Furthermore, an additional value proposition for Campfire that Niantic hopes to achieve, is to make it a viable hub for other Developers to have their Lightship-powered Apps and Games to be easily discoverable, affording these Developers greater recognition in the Virtual as well as the Real-life platform.
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