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'Pokémon Go' players unknowingly trained delivery robots with 30B images

popsci.com

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Re: 'Pokémon Go' players unknowingly trained delivery robots with 30B images

#81

Post by FrustratedMonky »

pohl wrote: post #66
FrustratedMonky wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

exactly. that is why i doubt they will get actual navigable information out of it.

To maintain that take, wouldn't you need to offer a plausible way that Niantic managed to train their Visual Positioning System using that data if the data was all bad?

I guess we don't know the terms of the deal, as far as how much they paid? So maybe they didn't pay much, so whatever data they could extract was ok for the cost.

The other point from article. I took this as experimental, so maybe we'll find out later that they really couldn't get much usable data.

Re: 'Pokémon Go' players unknowingly trained delivery robots with 30B images

#82

Post by skeledrew »

momoschili wrote: post #76
mikae1 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think many players are doing it. Do we have to think ? Apparently they amassed 30B images. :)

30B images isn't that much in the context of Pokemon Go playerbase of ~50 million (conservative estimate based on users today). That's about 600 images per person, in a game that has been out since 2016... that's pretty low adoption as the previous user said. I don't think the quest has been out since 2016, but considering a large fraction of users are basically daily users, it's still quite a small number of images.

That 30B could just be the useful set after cleanup.

Re: 'Pokémon Go' players unknowingly trained delivery robots with 30B images

#83

Post by skeledrew »

rigrassm wrote: post #74

Niantic has been doing this for a long time starting with Ingress. I've maybe done a handful of scans in PoGo but as others have mentioned the rewards were just not worth the trouble. The rewards for doing it in Ingress were much better (at least back in the day). I'm more split on my feelings towards it these days given our current political/social climate but part of me still thinks the idea of mapping the real wor…

> if they would release the data or make it publicly accessible for others

HAH! Deep dreams.

Re: 'Pokémon Go' players unknowingly trained delivery robots with 30B images

#84

Post by organsnyder »

deadbabe wrote: post #59
organsnyder wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My son showed me how he does these quests: he points the phone at the floor and just wiggles it back and forth.

Your son is a bad data point.

Aww... shucks. I'm such a proud father.

Re: 'Pokémon Go' players unknowingly trained delivery robots with 30B images

#86

Post by tantalor »

pavon wrote: post #45
organsnyder wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The quests themselves are prominently labeled "AR mapping". You don't need to go into the privacy policy to know what they are.

It is not at all clear that the mapping is for purposes other than the AR features in the game itself though. In fact Niantic advertised the scanning field research as helping them make richer experience at PokeStops (which they did). Niantic was much more upfront about this with Ingress, so people who know the company's history will likely guess that Pokemon Go is serving the same purpose, but for someone coming int…

Right, but it sounds like the data collection itself was pretty well communicated. So nobody should be surprised it gets used for some other (legal) purpose than was originally intended.

Re: 'Pokémon Go' players unknowingly trained delivery robots with 30B images

#87

Post by rigrassm »

skeledrew wrote: post #83
rigrassm wrote: post #74

Niantic has been doing this for a long time starting with Ingress. I've maybe done a handful of scans in PoGo but as others have mentioned the rewards were just not worth the trouble. The rewards for doing it in Ingress were much better (at least back in the day). I'm more split on my feelings towards it these days given our current political/social climate but part of me still thinks the idea of mapping the real wor…

> if they would release the data or make it publicly accessible for others HAH! Deep dreams.

> HAH! Deep dreams.

More of an inner reflection on what it would take for me to get behind it hence the last part of that statement lol.

>> but it being tied to the whims of a corporation (even one that's been less shitty than most) makes it hard to get behind

I wish I could elevate that scenario to the level of a dream lol

Re: 'Pokémon Go' players unknowingly trained delivery robots with 30B images

#88

Post by nijave »

tantalor wrote: post #12

> crowdsourced data, seemingly collected for one purpose > Whether players knew it or not, those scans were creating 3D models of the real world Kind of shitty reporting. Did users know about this data collection or not? Was it not disclosed?

Yes. You had to enable AR scans, follow the prompts that tried to ensure they were quality (although lots of people just scanned the ground), then click a big green upload button. When completed, you were compensated with in-game items.

I think it was quite obvious they were harvesting data although lesser technical players maybe weren't.

What's less obvious is the fact they record all your location data for who-knows-what purposes.

Re: 'Pokémon Go' players unknowingly trained delivery robots with 30B images

#89

Post by overfeed »

rigrassm wrote: post #74

Niantic has been doing this for a long time starting with Ingress. I've maybe done a handful of scans in PoGo but as others have mentioned the rewards were just not worth the trouble. The rewards for doing it in Ingress were much better (at least back in the day). I'm more split on my feelings towards it these days given our current political/social climate but part of me still thinks the idea of mapping the real wor…

> I'd probably be more inclined to support it if they would release the data or make it publicly accessible for others to use

Open Street Maps does exactly this, and could do with more volunteers and/or donations.

Re: 'Pokémon Go' players unknowingly trained delivery robots with 30B images

#90

Post by rigrassm »

overfeed wrote: post #89
rigrassm wrote: post #74

Niantic has been doing this for a long time starting with Ingress. I've maybe done a handful of scans in PoGo but as others have mentioned the rewards were just not worth the trouble. The rewards for doing it in Ingress were much better (at least back in the day). I'm more split on my feelings towards it these days given our current political/social climate but part of me still thinks the idea of mapping the real wor…

> I'd probably be more inclined to support it if they would release the data or make it publicly accessible for others to use Open Street Maps does exactly this, and could do with more volunteers and/or donations.

> Open Street Maps does exactly this, and could do with more volunteers and/or donations.

I've used osm in the past but haven't heard of them supporting AR style mapping submissions of points of interest, do you have any links to resources on that?

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