Niantic: Redefining AR Gaming Standards

Augmented reality (AR), advanced robotics, and scaled adaptive computing are cutting-edge technologies transforming the world today. From media and entertainment to gaming and digital connectivity, the world has just begun its foray into discovering the true potential of these technologies. Niantic, in many ways, is the undisputed leader in this area. Remember when five years ago, just about everyone wandered around the city glued to their phones, looking for Pikachu, Charmander, or Mewtwo? Yes. Pokemon Go. Niantic, a pioneer in AR gaming, took the world by storm in 2016 by launching this overnight global phenomenon that had everyone from young kids to adults and even their grandparents running around the street looking for the ever-adorable Pokemons. Before the year ended, the game had racked up $1 billion in revenues, and as of today, it has been downloaded over a billion times worldwide.

A small team of computer scientists, AI researchers, gamers, and cartographers, passionate about geospatial technologies and applications, came together in 2001 to create Keyhole, later named Google Earth after being acquired by Google. Their journey as Niantic Labs began in 2010 as a startup within Google, where they wanted to create gameplay with three core objectives for users to experience—exploration and discovery of new places, exercise, and real-world social interaction. Their first location-based mobile app, Field Trip, can guide users to the cool, hidden, and unique things in the world around them.

Niantic’s real-world AR platform is designed to enable users to interact in shared worlds that are seamlessly blended with the real world. Built on a foundation proven to scale to hundreds of millions of users, Niantic Lightship, earlier called Niantic Real World Platform, manages shared state, communication, security, mapping, and AR functionality. This platform leverages the processing power and cameras of smart devices and uses proprietary advanced machine learning and computer vision to understand the physical world in real-time.

In order to enable developers to build their own immersive, imaginative, and unique AR applications, the company is now offering broader access to the new Niantic Lightship Augmented Reality Developer Kit (ARDK).