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:
MewTwo pic.twitter.com/H17S2PEoFT
— Daito Manabe (@daitomanabe) March 6, 2018
日本新媒体动漫艺术节 中国・厦门展 2018 让您可以向在会场屏幕上出现的宝可梦扔出“精灵球”，真实地体验《Pokémon GO》的世界。
文化庁メディア芸術祭 中国・厦門展
Pokémon GO x Rhizomatiks !!!! pic.twitter.com/vkUT4eWZ8f— Daito Manabe (@daitomanabe) March 6, 2018
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:
Pokemon Go at Xiamen New Media Exhibition Event: Catching a pikachu at Xiamen, China from pokemongo
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?
