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Pokémon Go Scans Trained the Navigation Tech for Military Drones

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Re: Pokémon Go Scans Trained the Navigation Tech for Military Drones

#201

Post by red-iron-pine »

pj_mukh wrote: post #111

As someone who works in this space, the headline is a bit of a stretch. The overlap in the locations of Pokemon Go Player data and any active Drone heavy theaters of war is a tiny sliver (or zero?). The military contractor (Vantar/Maxar) in question basically admits so but just "reserves the right" to use the data which is the political battle line ala Claude and DoD. This is mostly an ideological battle.

i thought Maxar was mostly 3d images based on satellite inference. 1/2 of a pixel difference in a morning vs. noon vs. night sat photo can determine shadow and therefore height, etc. etc.

rapid 3d modeling of topography and cityscapes + supplementation with other data, e.g. pokemon. But ultimately that's supplementation, not the main effort.

Re: Pokémon Go Scans Trained the Navigation Tech for Military Drones

#202

Post by red-iron-pine »

titzer wrote: post #170
muyuu wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not like there's a moral high ground about not collaborating with the military. Unless you want to advantage America's adversaries, namely China, Putin's Russia and Iran's current regime. There's always this implicit, sometimes explicit, "war bad" childish political philosophy in posts like this. In reality war is a given and you have to be prepared to have the upper hand.

I guess nuclear weapons were just inevitable the moment the first quarks were assembled into a proton, right?

if it can be used to murder people it will be.

the only reason we dont have antimatter weapons or gravity guns is because we haven't figured out how.

Re: Pokémon Go Scans Trained the Navigation Tech for Military Drones

#203

Post by sciencejerk »

Russia is already taking advantage of preloaded terrain imagery, according to the article:

The principle is already turning up on the other side of the front, where a downed Russian drone was found matching live camera feeds against preloaded terrain imagery rather than trusting a single GPS module.

https://dronexl.co/2025/06/10/russian-ai-drone-nvidia-sony-u...

Re: Pokémon Go Scans Trained the Navigation Tech for Military Drones

#204

Post by corndoge »

sciencejerk wrote: post #203

Russia is already taking advantage of preloaded terrain imagery, according to the article: The principle is already turning up on the other side of the front, where a downed Russian drone was found matching live camera feeds against preloaded terrain imagery rather than trusting a single GPS module. https://dronexl.co/2025/06/10/russian-ai-drone-nvidia-sony-u...

This is ancient tech https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TERCOM

Re: Pokémon Go Scans Trained the Navigation Tech for Military Drones

#205

Post by tim333 »

Aurornis wrote: post #192
pj_mukh wrote: post #111

As someone who works in this space, the headline is a bit of a stretch. The overlap in the locations of Pokemon Go Player data and any active Drone heavy theaters of war is a tiny sliver (or zero?). The military contractor (Vantar/Maxar) in question basically admits so but just "reserves the right" to use the data which is the political battle line ala Claude and DoD. This is mostly an ideological battle.

Even the Pokémon Go world model headlines were stretching the reality of what the model captured. If you’ve played the game, the scanning function is only for what they call Pokestops: These are points of interest that you can walk to and get items in the game. The game gives you points if you walk in a circle around one and take a short video. They’re relatively sparse. At most, they captured some 3D models of some…

Aside from the scanning function, they likely have many geolocated images from people catching pokemon in AR mode.

Re: Pokémon Go Scans Trained the Navigation Tech for Military Drones

#206

Post by idiotsecant »

drfloyd51 wrote: post #154
pj_mukh wrote: post #111

As someone who works in this space, the headline is a bit of a stretch. The overlap in the locations of Pokemon Go Player data and any active Drone heavy theaters of war is a tiny sliver (or zero?). The military contractor (Vantar/Maxar) in question basically admits so but just "reserves the right" to use the data which is the political battle line ala Claude and DoD. This is mostly an ideological battle.

> The overlap in the locations of Pokemon Go Player data and any active Drone heavy theaters of war is a tiny sliver. Currently active theaters. And now there are detailed locations of our cities. We might not get killbots today but we will get pacificationbots.

Yep, the autocracies of the past only resolved when the ruling machinery needed something from the population. They needed farmers, workers, soldiers, etc.

There are clear parallels in the modern world of societies when the ruling machinery doesn't need those things from their population - petrostates. The people in these states tend to be viewed as subjects, not citizens. That's where we are headed

A corporate council of emperor kings with armies of pacification bots. The tiny sliver of window we have to ensure this doesn't happen is rapidly closing and there seems to be no movement toward ensuring that this doesn't culminate with the entire power of this new revolution in the hands of a small class of near demigods.

Re: Pokémon Go Scans Trained the Navigation Tech for Military Drones

#207

Post by tim333 »

corndoge wrote: post #204
sciencejerk wrote: post #203

Russia is already taking advantage of preloaded terrain imagery, according to the article: The principle is already turning up on the other side of the front, where a downed Russian drone was found matching live camera feeds against preloaded terrain imagery rather than trusting a single GPS module. https://dronexl.co/2025/06/10/russian-ai-drone-nvidia-sony-u...

This is ancient tech https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TERCOM

It sounds like image matching may be newer. Still you could probably do that with any old satellite image.

Re: Pokémon Go Scans Trained the Navigation Tech for Military Drones

#208

Post by idiotsecant »

red-iron-pine wrote: post #200
sciencejerk wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Optimistically, it sounds like the USA data could be used to assist USA domestic defense drones, fighting against an invading foreign nation. Pessimistically, maybe democracy's days are numbered

> Pessimistically, maybe democracy's days are numbered that was in the cards in the early 2000s when the Patriot Act got passed, mate. now they just have the muscle (drones) to back it up. welcome to the cyberpunk dystopia

The real cyberpunk dystopia is going to be a lot less glamorous than it is in the stories- mostly just unending poverty, war, and death for the vast majority of us.

Re: Pokémon Go Scans Trained the Navigation Tech for Military Drones

#209

Post by idiotsecant »

pj_mukh wrote: post #131
oceansky wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Pokemon go player, I would say it isn't. There's even a Pokemon exclusive to the middle east region: sandstorm pattern Vivillion. Lots of players there.

"The Middle-east" isn't a war zone. Even the parts of the middle-east that are, don't have any drone deployments. Lebanon maybe? Reports are thin. Maxar is/was primarily a satellite data company, and to say Pokemon data would add any major value in any of today's active drone deployments with the level of Satellite coverage Maxar already has is a wide stretch. Moreover, ground forces in the area would need pretty hea…

I think pretty heavy ubiquitous jamming is absolutely a feature of modern warfare now. Ukraine is a model of what's to cone

Re: Pokémon Go Scans Trained the Navigation Tech for Military Drones

#210

Post by kaladin-jasnah »

l23k4 wrote: post #41
ai_fry_ur_brain wrote: post #15

Niantics founder has CIA roots... None of this is surprising. https://www.binance.com/en/square/post/302386307352562

> Niantics founder has CIA roots This is not at all an honest way of saying "Niantics founder raised money from In-Q-Tel"

Isn't Oxide Computer also funded by In-Q-Tel?
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