Niantic Inc., the developer of the well-known augmented reality (AR) game “Pokemon Go,” recently made an announcement regarding the debut of its revolutionary Lightship AR mapping system.
It is an offering for web browsers and an extension of its continuing efforts to increase the boundaries of the metaverse beyond the virtual world.
WebAR, a platform driven by the 8th Wall that Niantic bought a few months back, facilitates this web-based AR. Based on the 8th Wall, firms and developers may offer augmented reality (AR) experiences through mobile platform browsers without creating their own apps.
The Lightship Visual Positioning System for Web system places virtual items in the actual environment for augmented reality information using sophisticated mapping and scanned visual data.
When users operate devices like smartphones or smartglasses, AR works by superimposing virtual items, often referred to as holograms, over what they can observe.
Holograms can be placed over the facades of retail stores or sculptures with a high level of accuracy by relying on Lightship VPS. It can lead to people discovering many new experiences. Developers can produce dynamic displays of virtual objects and characters that seem to interact with the real world using augmented reality. As an example, we can consider that experience might involve product logos becoming animated and coming out into 3D space, as well as, them retaining awareness of their surroundings, and responding to the same.
When a person is outside, they can simply use their smartphones to watch animated characters perform jumping jacks in the park or watch virtual blimps wade high up in the air and move behind structures.
Developers would be required to write code for particular AR apps before Lightship VPS for the Web is launched in order to launch their experiences. They can now be launched directly from web pages without the need for applications, which makes them more accessible to a wider range of users.
John Hanke, the company’s CEO claims that people working at Niantic have the idea that the real-world metaverse should encourage individuals to look around and communicate with one another in their immediate environment. He said that a crucial step toward enabling developers to accurately and persistently fuse digital content with the real world is the Web release of Lightship VPS.
When creating their own location-based AR experiences for their web-based apps, developers using Lightship can either add VPS-linked sites to the AR map of Niantic or use the more than 100 thousand VPS-activated sites that were available at launch.
These places include public spaces like parks, walking paths, and neighbourhood businesses in addition to streets and well-known landmarks. This collection of locations was created by Niantic with the help of its collective, which included game developers, consultants, and gamers. Millions of places, visuals, and scans from its users have enhanced its infrastructure with crucial information, making all AR interactions more effective and vivid.
Niantic collaborated with a number of design studios worldwide to create visual representations that were mounted on landmarks as a way to demonstrate the technology.
