Lmao - well done Niantic
'Pokémon Go' players unknowingly trained delivery robots with 30B images
91–100 of 108 posts
Re: 'Pokémon Go' players unknowingly trained delivery robots with 30B images
#92I like Pokemon Go and play almost every day. I did this scan one time and then stopped. The rewards are not worth the hassle. I don't think many players are doing it. It's just very weird to stand somewhere and scan an object. I also wouldn't say 'unknowingly trained', it's pretty obvious what it does, and I think the game even tells you that they want to understands how the POI looks like in 3D.
My son showed me how he does these quests: he points the phone at the floor and just wiggles it back and forth.
My friend did this. He always took pictures of his feet. He was banned from submitting scans and Wayfarer for a few years. He just got access back.
We joke that maybe PoGo didn't get any benefit from his data, but someone did.
Re: 'Pokémon Go' players unknowingly trained delivery robots with 30B images
#93I like Pokemon Go and play almost every day. I did this scan one time and then stopped. The rewards are not worth the hassle. I don't think many players are doing it. It's just very weird to stand somewhere and scan an object. I also wouldn't say 'unknowingly trained', it's pretty obvious what it does, and I think the game even tells you that they want to understands how the POI looks like in 3D.
I'd imagine it's not just the research quests, but it's submissions for new stops, too.
Re: 'Pokémon Go' players unknowingly trained delivery robots with 30B images
#94At what point will we have people transmit their car dash cams along with GPS information in order to generate more data? I’m actually surprised this hasn’t happened yet with self driving car manufacturers needing more and more data
Maybe it could help find lost pets roaming the neighborhood
Re: 'Pokémon Go' players unknowingly trained delivery robots with 30B images
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I should not need to work for free, give my data, and god knows what to play a game. The game is free, with doing so being the price. If you don't like that price, you can always pay $80 for a traditional Pokemon game. As such, I don't get the handwringing. There is no such thing as a free lunch and never will be.
Is there an $80 Pokémon game where walking outside is a core mechanic and that facilitates interaction with a huge network of users?
You might be surprised. Various games have come with both. One iteration (the 3DS remake of Gold/Silver) even came with a pedometer that allowed you to level up by walking around: https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pok%C3%A9walker
Nintendo's StreetPass tech may also qualify: https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/StreetPass
Re: 'Pokémon Go' players unknowingly trained delivery robots with 30B images
#96Big corporations have found the way to make us work for free in their own terms. The balance of power between the working class and capital is totally broken. And for me it is not just the lack of transparency. It is the power balance. I should not need to work for free, give my data, and god knows what to play a game. I should not be living knowing that I am being exploited at each interaction with software. Transpa…
> Big corporations have found the way to make us work for free in their own terms. The balance of power between the working class and capital is totally broken.
> And for me it is not just the lack of transparency. It is the power balance. I should not need to work for free, give my data, and god knows what to play a game.
If you have such a (legitimate) stance, why don't you delete Pokémon Go (and Ingress) as fast as possible from your mobile phone and encourage other people to do the same?
It was obvious from begin that the whole purpose of the game was that naive players are to take pictures of objects that are of interest to Niantic for free. The "payment" is a short dosis of dopamine high. A lot of players seemed to be perfectly fine with this kind of "payment".
Re: 'Pokémon Go' players unknowingly trained delivery robots with 30B images
#97Not unexpected, but it looks the oldest kid, Ingress, is being ignored again. IIRC, there was some badge you could earn by doing a number of those scans. Or is Ingress even still around?
When I played it (it was invitation-based, but it was not difficult to get an invitation), there was nothing related to photo. Pure GPS-based navigation (including "helicopter" players). No idea if it includes AR features now.
Re: 'Pokémon Go' players unknowingly trained delivery robots with 30B images
#98Earlier 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.
600 images per person is a huge amount, especially considering some amount of people are like the GP and don’t do it. The active picture takers would be taking _more_ than 600 images.
Re: 'Pokémon Go' players unknowingly trained delivery robots with 30B images
#99I did not see that coming back then. But now, I think, how did I not see that coming?
Re: 'Pokémon Go' players unknowingly trained delivery robots with 30B images
#100I like Pokemon Go and play almost every day. I did this scan one time and then stopped. The rewards are not worth the hassle. I don't think many players are doing it. It's just very weird to stand somewhere and scan an object. I also wouldn't say 'unknowingly trained', it's pretty obvious what it does, and I think the game even tells you that they want to understands how the POI looks like in 3D.
> obvious what it does, and I think the game even tells you that they want to understands how the POI looks like in 3D.
But most people probably assumed the purpose was to improve the game, not to train delivery robots.
Or whatever else they end up doing with the data. If, as the article suggests, this ends up adding to the surveillance state by making geolocation of photos more accurate, then I really don't think that's what the players had in mind.