Pokemon Go brings augmented reality to the mainstream

In a little under a week,Pokemonhas taken over the world again.

PokemonGo, a new mobile app for iOS and Android phones, is the latest craze fromNintendo,featuring creatures that you catch in the wild and train to spar with your rivals.

Over the past 20 years, Pokemon hasbeen a mainstay of popular culturein the form of video games, animated films, action figures and a collectible card game.

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ButPokemonGo scratches a very specific itch become aPokemontrainer yourself! and places fan-favouriteslikePikachuandBulbasaurin the wild via augmented reality (AR)technology.

Pokefansyoung and old are gathering into parties and venturing forth in the millions in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand. It's not even officially out in Canada yet, but already one can find groups of amateur trainers across the country who have downloaded the app via unofficial workarounds.

The app has become so popular so quickly that over the weekend, reports emerged of people injuring themselves while walking outside, their eyes glued to their phones.

More sensational stories include a girl finding a dead body while searching for Pokemon, and someone placing a Clefairyon the doorstep of the Westboro Baptist Church. (The church later responded, calling thePokemon a "sodomite.")

It's being hailed by some critics and analysts as the first big augmented reality experience.

'A watershed moment for AR'

"I thinkPokemonGo has definitely put augmented reality on the map," says Stephanie Lee, a freelance writer for techblogLifehacker. "It's such a widely recognizable brand and franchise that's been around for 20 years."

This comes despite the fact that thetechnologyused in the game location tracking with GPS, and digital images overlaid on what your phone's camera sees isn't terribly new.

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The game's had its share of troubles at launch, as well. Gaming and tech writers described being regularly disconnected from developerNiantic'sservers as itstruggled to cope with the volume of new players. They also noted that most of its features are directlylifted fromNiantic'slast AR game Ingress, which launched in 2013 and has enjoyed a smaller, though dedicatedfanbase.

Pokemon Go, explained

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Mobile Syrup's Patrick O'Rourke explains how to play Pokemon Go, a new mobile app by Nintendo that's exploded in popularity over the weekend

But it was the marriage of the technology with an instantly recognizable brand and conceptthat brought people outside in droves hunting for their favourite monsters.

"I've had people messaging me saying they haven't played video games since they were 10 or 11 years old playing the originalPokemonon the GameBoy trying outPokemonGo,"PatrickO'Rourke, a columnist for Canadian tech site MobileSyrup, told CBC News.

"It's a watershed moment for AR, I'd say."

Cheaper, more accessible than VR headsets

RichardLachman, an associate professor who teaches digital media and storytelling atRyersonUniversity, saysPokemonGo came at just the right time to spark wider interest in AR.

"Even if you don't exactly know what augmented reality is, you've heard the word before,"he says. "Only three or four years ago, only early adopters or super-tech people would know what that is or engage with it directly. The time was right."

You might already be using it, even if you haven't heard the term before: Snapchat's wildly popular face swap feature and other filters add digital overlays to your real-life face in much the same way thatPokemonGo plants monsters onto your smartphone's screen.

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Aspiring Pokemon trainers search for digital monsters roaming outside the CBC broadcast centre in Toronto

That accessibility might make augmented reality widely popular more quickly than virtual reality, the darling of the enthusiast technology press. The difference between the two? Many people already have asmartphonewith AR capabilities, while VR needs an expensive headset and powerful PC.

"A lot of tech companies have had a super-difficult time conveying what VR or ARmeans on the user's side," saysJeffBakalar, a tech and games columnist forCNET. "[PokemonGo] is that sort of gateway experience where the everyman can be like, 'Oh, I get it now.'"

Copycats, knock-off appsinevitable

The bigger question for developers looking to cash in on thePokemonwave is whether more people will try out other AR experiences that don't involve catchingPokemon.

"Pokemon is a pervasive pop culture thing. Everyonekind ofknows what it is, if you're under 40," Bakalartold CBC News. "But I also think there is a certain quality, a certain novelty this game has that transcends the notion of whether or not you're a strictPokemonfan."

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Video game critic Matt Peckham on latest version of the popular Japanese franchise, which has claimed top spot in the Apple iTunes store in less than a week

Its early success guarantees that some developers will try to follow the trend, whether their results are good or not, he says. "It would be shocking if there wasn't a barrage of AR copycat games that come out right after this," he says.

"If you're a mobile developer and you have any notion of what AR is, you are doing that now."

Beyond the inevitable knock-offs, the boom might inspire newly converted fans of AR to try out existing apps.

Tom's Guide has a list ofwell-received applications, from QR Code scanners (remember those?) to Monocle, which slaps Yelp restaurant reviews onto locations on your smartphone's camera.

It remains to be seen, however, whetherPokemonGowill be a long-term successforNintendo. Its first mobilegame,Miitomo, made a positive first impression when it launched in March, but quickly faded in popularity after usersran out of things to do.

Future mobile games set inNintendo'sFireEmblem,Animal CrossingandLegend ofZeldaseriesare currently in the works.