The creator of Pokemon Go will sell his AR technology to launch games like Harry Potter

I hold a phone about the length of FaceTime away from my face while I run into a room. If a certain company makes its way, everyone will do it much faster.

I play a game created by Niantic, the start-up that has been the driving force behind the hit mobile game of 2016, Pokemon Go. You know, the game that has been the fastest in history of the App Store has reached one billion dollars in revenue and is still among the most played in the world.

The popularity of Pokemon Go was rooted in its simplicity: grab a phone, point it to the real world and on the screen you see the sidewalk in front of you. Then, suddenly, a Pokémon – or "pocket monster" – comes out and bounces. Your job is to capture him by hitting him effectively with a Pokeball. The slogan of Pokémon: "You have to catch everything."

The international sensation of the game has made Niantic a leader in an emerging field called augmented reality, in which computer images (in this case, Pokemon) are superimposed on the real world. But technology is only in its infancy. The Pokémon were not convincing in the real world since they just jumped a bit on the screen. That's why Niantic, who is named after a whaling and gold-hulled ship under downtown San Francisco, urged reporters to visit his spacious offices on the second floor of the historic Ferry Building of the city. technology is developing.

Each of Niantic's breakthroughs is designed to help our phones better understand the world around them. For example, the company has created a technology to identify the ground, people, cars and other everyday things that your phone sees when you hold it. If your phone can identify enough elements, Niantic can do things like make the Pokemon Pikachu character seem to run behind someone's legs while they walk, hide behind a plant or stand sneak behind a car.

I can also create new types of games, like Neon, which I played a demo. There were three other people who were holding phones at the FaceTime position while they were moving into the empty room. The screen shows what the camera sees, as well as extras like small white orbs on the floor and a score above each of the player's heads.

My goal with Neon: Gather the white orbs by stepping on them, then tap on the screen of my opponents to throw them a ball of colored energy.

Neon is an example of what Niantic ultimately wants us all to do. He moved me around the room to pick up the orbs on the floor and avoid being hit by my opponents. There were also our phones that were communicating, which Niantic described as a technological hurdle to overcome with the mobile operators. And Niantic identified my opponents with little badges that followed them on the screen, which meant the game was following where they were in the room while they were moving

"C & # 39; is the real world – more, "said Michael Jones. Real world mapping efforts at Niantic. "We want to build games where wherever you go, something magical is happening around you and it integrates into the world in which you live."

Although Pokemon Go has changed the way we think about this technology in advance of Niantic. Instead, larger companies like Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft and a promising startup called Magic Leap have pushed technology by offering software tools to developers. They also created their own apps and demos like Animoji (Apple), playful animals that lead you down a map (Google), filters that put characters and masks your face (Facebook), Minecraft on your coffee table (Microsoft) and the promise of futuristic workspaces with email, video games and more floating superimposed on the real world (Magic Bond).

To understand the ambitions of Niantic, it is important to know the roots of the company. Niantic is a startup that has raised more than $ 225 million, according to Crunchbase. This is partly because its CEO John Hanke and other members of his management team came from a satellite imaging startup called Keyhole, which Google bought back in 2004 and transformed into Google Earth.

Niantic is therefore no surprise at plans far larger than Pokemon Go. Like many of its larger competitors, Niantic wants to become a leader in AR technology and plans to make its tools available for use. in all the industry.

This is not just for games. Niantic believes that its technology could help companies create robots and drones that know where they are in space, autonomous car manufacturers can better see what's around them and more.

formula, which was itself something that the company perfected with its first game, Ingress, launched in 2013.

Although Niantic did not offer much detail about his next big game, Harry Potter: Unite Wizards, Hanke said that Pokemon Go "feeds the development" of Harry Potter.

Solve big problems

Like many modern apps and gadgets, Pokemon Go is deceptively simple. It's when you start thinking about its scale that you realize how difficult this game is to achieve.

Niantic actually has a map of the planet, on which he has scattered Pokemon; "PokeStops", where players can collect more items to help with their hunt; and "Gymnasiums", where players fight against their Pokémon to boast.

With these new technologies, and the acquisition of Matrix Mill, British start-up computer imaging, Niantic says that he will be able to better identify the players and what's going on in the world around them. Ross Finman, head of Niantic's research in the field of AR, said that the "map data of the company on the entire planet."

Niantic is aware that this technology makes it possible to track the world around you, identify the objects you see and add that all of this in a world map can do so much more than d & # 39; help drive a popular game. Companies manufacturing autonomous cars are struggling with and inventing technology to manage these same problems, as do companies manufacturing drones and robots.

"Any kind of computation that interacts with the physical world, whether it's AR or robotics, will need what we do," says Finman.