Strange Things Happen When People Play Pokemon Go

Story from Voice of America:

“We love to be hip and cool. We love to embrace what’s next, but we don’t always think before we jump,” said Todd Richmond with University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies. “I think that part of the power of these digital capabilities, both virtual and augmented reality, are so compelling — or they can be so compelling in some cases — that they are addictive, and they do cause you to behave in ways that you wouldn’t normally do.”

Richmond has been researching virtual and augmented reality for years before the technologies were made public. He said augmented reality, while still in its infancy, will eventually touch every aspect of life, including commerce.

“AR [augmented reality] is about bringing digital things into your physical space, and it’s still your physical space,” he said. “That’s a transaction that is a lot easier for humans to process, but it’s also potentially a lot more dangerous because now you have the possibility of feeding ads to everyone everywhere.”

Using augmented reality in a game such as Pokemon Go is a preview of what is to come.

Richmond said this new technology can enrich life, but be warned: Any new technology can also be exploited.