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Google spinoff Niantic had a massive hit on its easily when it launched Pokémon Go several years ago. The title made use of augmented reality (AR) engineering science to go far await similar all your favorite pocket monsters were roaming around in the real world. However, the AR was rudimentary at best. Niantic has since acquired several smaller firms to beef upwards its AR tech, and now it'southward preparing to roll out its enhanced "Existent World Platform." The company plans to make the Real World Platform available to tertiary-party developers, too.

The Real Earth Platform powers Pokémon Go, but some impressive new capabilities are coming. If you've ever played Pokémon Get, you'll know that Pokémon appear in specific locations in the world. However, they're not aware of the environment. That Charmander simply floats around in a certain area, completely obscuring anything that might be in the way. It might look fine if you're in an open up infinite, but the virtual elements overlap things in a more complex setting.

Starting earlier this year, Niantic began acquiring companies that specialize in AR and machine learning. In February, Niantic gobbled upwardly Escher Reality, and information technology recently caused Matrix Manufacturing plant. Niantic has offered a demo of what the Real World Platform will expect like going forward thanks to these acquisitions.

In the video below, you can see the difference between the current AR platform and what Niantic plans to do. Pikachu first runs around the environment, overlapping all the people and objects. It doesn't look bully. Then, the new AR occlusion tech kicks in and suddenly Pikachu can run behind objects for a much more than realistic look.

Niantic says this engineering relies on neural networks, and information technology works in existent fourth dimension on your device. The Real World Platform tin actually understand the earth, even when objects and people move around. It too has a technique for multiple phones to communicate direct via cell belfry transmission rather than going through a centralized server.

Importantly, these tools won't just exist limited to Niantic games. The company plans to give third-political party developers access to the Real World Platform, making information technology like Amazon AWS for augmented reality products. Niantic has not talked about the business model for such a service, though. In that location will exist more details on that front in the coming months. For now, developers who are interested in using the Real World Platform can sign up for more data on Niantic's new dev page.