Since the launch of Pokémon, “We’ve seen a huge increase in students walking around talking to each other,” he says.

Wittkower, an assistant professor who studies the philosophy of technology and culture. “It’s one of the better places in the entire city of Norfolk to go on Poké Walks,” says D.E. Since then, the numbers have fallen off somewhat, but it remains hugely popular.Īttorney general’s dilemma: Whether to indict a former presidentĪt Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., for example, the campus is replete with Pokémon gyms and stops. But it’s also an advance look “into the technology our world will wield 10 or even five years from now.”Įight days after its July 6 release, Pokémon Go attracted 25 million users, becoming America’s most popular mobile game ever, according to SurveyMonkey. Pokémon Go is a “primitive version of AR, to be sure,” says Darrell West, founding director of the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution. By marrying “augmented reality” or AR, which projects computer video onto physical space, with geolocation, the game can track where a player is. While players today hunt Poké monsters, which pop up in real-life gathering spots, in the future the technology will be able to foster communities that meet face-to-face, give businesses new ways to bring customers to their location, and allow firefighters to “see” structural vulnerabilities in burning buildings and plot exit routes. Pokémon Go is more than just a wildly popular game – it is a window, albeit a primitive one, into a new, potentially far-reaching technology.

Pokemon go live map geolocation