New Media Animation Exhibition, Xiamen, China 2018 is a festival that showcases advancements in various media departments, Augmented Reality included. Of course, with Pokémon GO being the poster child of AR, there is a nifty demo available for festivals visitors.
The demo allows visitors to throw plush Poké balls at an actual wall projection, where a fully functional Mewtwo or Pikachu capture encounter is taking place, including the catch circle animation, (allegedly) jump / attack mechanics and ball shakes.
Curiously, the encounter doesn’t feature the usual catch environment, but various temple-looking backgrounds.
As showcased in a different demo, the “wall” is completely aware of where the Pokéball hits it. At first, we thought that the thrower is really clumsy, but then we realised he was showcasing how the ball continues to travel in AR from the point where it hit the wall:
Apparently, this type of screen / projection technology has been around for years, mostly utilised for indoor golf simulators (they make those?):
The setup consists of a few components (via Golf City):
- Brains of the System: Something like the OptiShot system that creates 3-D courses and uses sensors to track the course of the ball.
- Projector: Displays the courses and swing information on a wall.
- Golf mat: Simulates the feel of the grass of a golf course and allows you to place tees.
- Net / screen: Catches the ball after it’s hit to prevent damage and/or injury from flying golf balls.
- Space: You need ample room to fully swing the club freely.
And it seems that almost the a similar setup has been created for Pokémon GO, with ball plushie replacing the gold bat. What do you think, would this type of interaction be fun as a mini game outside of Pokémon GO’s main game loops?
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