{"id":16715,"date":"2022-02-01T12:39:03","date_gmt":"2022-02-01T10:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lenslist.co\/?p=16715"},"modified":"2024-03-19T18:41:47","modified_gmt":"2024-03-19T16:41:47","slug":"its-time-to-put-niantic-on-your-ar-journey-map","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lenslist.co\/2022\/02\/01\/its-time-to-put-niantic-on-your-ar-journey-map\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Time to Put Niantic on Your AR-Journey Map – Their Platform for Developers Is Here! \ud83d\uddfa\ud83d\udca1\ud83d\udea2"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nDo you remember the first time you heard about Augmented Reality? Or the first time you actually experienced AR in action? For many of us, the first thing that comes to mind is Pok\u00e9mon GO, the viral sensation that took the mobile gaming world by storm in 2016 and still proves to be the most popular AR-powered app today.<\/strong>
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\nThe creator behind GO\u2019s success is Niantic<\/strong>, a company with a rich history in mapping and planet-scale AR. Niantic CEO John Hanke initially created Keyhole, a first-of-its-kind product that allowed users to zoom into 3D maps of the planet. In 2004, Google acquired Keyhole and renamed it Google Earth<\/strong>. Over the next few years, that original team grew from thirty people in 2004 to more than one thousand by 2010 who went on to build Google Maps<\/strong>, Street View, and more. Finally, in 2010 John incubated Niantic as a startup within Google focused on using mobile devices to create a new kind of gameplay. Not bad, huh?\n<\/p>\n

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Well, these were just the beginnings of Niantic\u2019s true mission, which is \u2013 exploration, exercise and real-world social interaction<\/strong> \u2013 using AR and mobile devices to bring a little more fun, joy and magic into the real world. In 2015, they spun out of Google and now operate as a fully independent company and here\u2019s where we really started to identify with their approach – they really care about the community aspect of their operations and the influence their products and services have on society at large. Niantic may have started as a company making AR games, but they think AR as a technology, and Lightship<\/strong><\/a> as their scalable platform for any location-based AR application or experience can help make our world better. It may sound cliche, but look at the effect Google Maps had on our lives!\n<\/p>\n

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\nNiantic’s vision of the future, especially as it relates to Web 3.0 or the metaverse, doesn’t launch humanity into space or exist only in virtual spaces. Instead, they’re building AR that focuses on connected and joined experience. By creating tools to understand depth, physics, occlusions, and semantic segmentation PLUS gaming and entirely new channels, people will be able to enhance their reality, not replace it with a new one. On top of that, Niantic plans to make access to these real-world AR experiences universal – no matter where your adventure starts.\n<\/p>\n

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\nNow why do we think AR Creators from our Community should give attention to Niantic? They recently launched (November 8th<\/a>) the Lightship platform<\/a><\/strong>, opening up the technology that powers Pokemon GO to all AR developers. The first tool of the Lightship platform, the Niantic Lightship Augmented Reality Developer Kit (ARDK), is now available for developers. It brings together real-time mapping (depth, meshing, and occlusion), understanding (semantic segmentation), and sharing (multiplayer and networking) to help developers create more engaging AR experiences. As an example, check out what Alexson Chu developed for the Lightship Winter Challenge to win the whole contest! \ud83d\udc47 Explore all winning experiences<\/a> and let us know which one you like most. Can\u2019t wait to see what ideas for Lightship our Community comes up with!\n<\/p>\n\t