{"id":389790,"date":"2026-03-17T15:15:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T15:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/389790\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T15:15:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T15:15:12","slug":"pokemon-go-players-have-been-unwittingly-training-robots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/389790\/","title":{"rendered":"Pokemon Go players have been unwittingly training robots"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"People People play Pokemon GO on smartphones during the in-person Pokemon GO Tour in Pasadena, California on 20 February, 2026 (AFP via Getty Images) <\/p>\n

Hundreds of millions of Pokemon Go<\/a> players have unknowingly helped create an AI navigation system that will now be used by delivery robots<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The augmented reality smartphone game, which uses a phone\u2019s GPS and camera to allow players to catch virtual creatures in the real world, has built up a database of more than 30 billion images since it launched a decade ago.<\/p>\n

This has allowed Niantic<\/a> Spatial, a spin-off of Pokemon Go creator Niantic, to develop a Visual Positioning System (VPS) that is able to pinpoint a location to within a few centimetres without relying on GPS satellites.<\/p>\n

This visual approach to location and orientation is particularly useful within indoor environments, where GPS signals can be blocked or degraded, as well as so-called urban canyons, where tall buildings can confuse satellite navigation systems.<\/p>\n

Niantic Spatial has now partnered with US-based robot delivery firm Coco Robotics to use its VPS technology to help its machines to navigate in challenging urban environments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe promise of last-mile robotics is immense, but the reality of navigating chaotic city streets is one of the hardest engineering challenges,\u201d said Niantic Spatial CEO John Hanke.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are thrilled to be working with Coco Robotics as our first robotics partner and deploying spatial intelligence to help solve these challenges head-on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Niantic Niantic Spatial partnered with Coco Robotics for its autonomous robot delivery service (Niantic Spatial) <\/p>\n

The crowd-sourced data has been boosted by in-game features like \u2018Field Research\u2019 that encourage Pokemon Go players to scan statues and landmarks in order to receive rewards.<\/p>\n

These scans can be converted into 3D models that give a highly accurate visualisation for Niantic Spatial\u2019s VPS technology.<\/p>\n

Coco Robotics\u2019 delivery bots, which have completed around half a million deliveries to date, already use GPS and will utilise their four cameras to provide feedback for improved VPS directions when delivering groceries and goods.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives us reliable access to localization services that further improve robot navigation,\u201d said Zach Rash, co-founder and CEO of Coco Robotics.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking ahead, we\u2019ll jointly explore new ways to enable Coco\u2019s robots to operate with increasing safety and autonomy in any city.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People play Pokemon GO on smartphones during the in-person Pokemon GO Tour in Pasadena, California on 20 February,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[74],"tags":[178008,18,178010,19,17,178009,82],"class_list":["post-389790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-coco-robotics","tag-eire","tag-gps-satellites","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-niantic-spatial","tag-technology"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116245176588218349","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}