Pokémon are taking over the world - well the augmented world anyway! It may have escaped your attention that there is a fast growing craze taking the world by storm. The game has already surpassed Tinder and Twitter in popularity so you won’t be surprised to hear people are engaging with it more than Facebook – Not in terms of users, although the game boasts 15 million downloads, but in time spent on the monster catching app (according to ‘SensorTower’ who supply metrics to the likes of Wall Street Journal and Forbes.
In case you’re not sure what all the hype is about, Pokémon GO enables you to travel between the real world and the virtual world of Pokémon. With Pokémon GO, you’ll discover Pokémon in a whole new world - your own! Pokémon GO uses real locations via GPRS to encourage players to explore their surroundings to catch over 100 species of Pokémon. There are shops to purchase items to lure Pokémon, gyms hidden in the augmented world where Pokémon can be used in battle against other users and more.
At Ingleton Wood this augmented world is not new to us! We are working on our own augmented reality app in conjunction with a consortium of European partners. ACCEPT uses some of the same principles as Pokémon GO but instead of showing you Pokémon, it shows you drawings, interactive notes and 3D models on a construction site. By tapping into the augmented world we can virtually connect drawing models and other information directly with those tasked with construction. This reduces the amount of misinformation passed down the supply chain to ensure that contractors and subcontractors always have the most up to date information at all times.
So what would this look like in the real world? Imagine when you are on a construction site that you can see a window in augmented reality in the hole where one should be positioned, you could click on the virtual window and obtain the full specification, manufacturers information, installation instructions, videos and health and safety advice. You could even view information about whether the window has been delivered to site and review any tasks left outstanding to be completed before installation can take place. By using augmented reality in this way we can connect the construction site with the design team and influence the quality and efficiency of construction, helping to produce buildings that live up to their designed standards.
So in the future, when you are on a construction site, you won’t be trying to ‘catch them all’ but you may be using the same augmented reality world with ACCEPT to improve the quality of the buildings we produce.
If you would like to know more about ACCEPT, please do not hesitate to contact Ed Godden at:
edward.godden@ingletonwood.co.uk