Pokémon GO is not Augmented Reality. But it’s okay.

By: Anijo Mathew

At the Institute of Design, I teach a class called “Interactive Spaces,” where I talk about Paul Milgram, a computer scientist who in the early 90’s suggested that computers in the future would exist across a reality continuum. One end of the continuum is a completely “physical” reality. This is our real world, a world that is not modeled (at least not by us). Here, we live our physical lives and interact with real-world spaces, objects and people. On the other end of the continuum is a completely “virtual” reality. This is a world build from just byte-based information, a world that is completely modeled by us. Think of Second Life, the popular online world from the last decade, where users would spend hours flying around through different islands and worlds, buying virtual products and sharing virtual experiences. Immersive VR such as Google Cardboard, HTC Vive and Oculus Rift all fall in this side of the continuum. Embedded in the middle of the continuum are “mediated” existences or what Milgram refers to as “Mixed Reality”. This is the world that is partially modeled, augmenting the physical world through digitally mediated objects and experiences. However, in Milgram’s continuum, Mixed Reality is a combination of two separate nodes — the first is an “Augmented Virtuality (AV)” where digital objects and experiences are mapped onto the real world. And the second is “Augmented Reality (AR),” where digital objects not only exist in the real world but also can change and affect the physical object it sits on. The problem is that these two realities are often confused and presented as one. And we often refer to the two realities as augmented reality.

Within augmented virtuality, digital objects are connected to their physical counterparts through association and association only. The objects do not affect the physical reality at all. In fact, if the physical reality changed, the digital actors would not even know. In true augmented reality, the digital augmentation co-exists with physical objects. This means if physical world changes, it should also change its digital counterpart. As companies like Magic Leap come out with commercially viable experiences, this will potentially transform the world as we know it. As Internet of Things (IoT) experiences start to permeate our physical world, you can imagine real world objects that kinetically “react” to changes in the digital world. Imagine for example, a new office chair with sensors that re-adjusts its contours based on what the user was doing earlier (with data gleaned from her calendar). Steelcase, are you listening?

Now back to my core argument. Pokémon GO is a location-aware gaming experience. However, when you say Pokémon GO is augmented reality, that statement is only partially true. All it does is take digital objects and drops them in front of your phone’s camera so it seems as though they are in physical space. Now you ask: why is this important? Well, two reasons. First, it does nothing to acknowledge the physicality in which its digital object lives. This limits gameplay. If monsters did exist in the real world, they wouldn’t just hang out there, would they? They would hide. They would stand on top of walls. Or camouflage themselves in a mural or jump from balcony to balcony. Second, it does not use the narrative of the place to its advantage. It adds nothing to the fact that you are physically at that location. It takes no account of history, of memories.

The true reason why Pokémon GO is important is not AR but the allure of physicality. It’s in the experience of the physical. The game has created an appetite for more location-aware experiences, paving way for platforms such as Vamonde. At Vamonde, we are building a platform where users can use place-based narratives to truly augment their physical reality. Using spatiotemporal location triggers, Vamonde storytellers can reconstruct their narratives. For example, a short story writer might say you cannot read the story until you arrive at this particular place after sunset. Or you cannot unlock this poem recital until you are in front of this mural when it is raining. Or the Hellenic Museum might extend an exhibition about Greek immigrants into the streets of Chicago through hyper local stories embedded in Greektown.

For too long, place has been the mute content of stories. Pokémon GO is a baby step towards true narrative consumption of place. At Vamonde, we want to make it an active part of the narrative. When platforms like Vamonde and Pokémon GO start to acknowledge the physicality in which digital objects live, that’s when we will truly augment reality.