今年7月，一款名為Pokémon Go的手機(jī)游戲風(fēng)靡全球。該游戲通過運(yùn)用增強(qiáng)現(xiàn)實(shí)技術(shù)，成功地將虛擬世界和真實(shí)世界結(jié)合在一起，使得玩家能夠在現(xiàn)實(shí)世界中跑來跑去，四處尋找和捕捉游戲中的小精靈。在此之前，增強(qiáng)現(xiàn)實(shí)技術(shù)對于很多人而言還是個(gè)虛無縹緲的概念，而Pokémon Go的突然出現(xiàn)不僅令人眼前一亮，更令增強(qiáng)現(xiàn)實(shí)離我們的生活又近了一些。

增強(qiáng)現(xiàn)實(shí)初體驗(yàn)

It started as an April Fools joke. Google released a funny video that mashed up3） Google Maps and Pokémon4）. The video， released on April 1， 2014， went viral， drawing more than eighteen million views in all. “We thought， ‘Why not try and make it real？” John Hanke said. Hanke is the C.E.O. of Niantic， which was then a project inside Google， developing mobile games using augmented and mixed-media5） reality.

Two years later， Hanke and his team have turned that joke into a reality. On July 6th， Niantic， which had since spun off6） from Google to become an independent company， released Pokémon Go—a game that encourages you to get out in the real world and use your mobile phone to catch Pokémon. Within two days of its release， Pokémon Go had been installed on 5.16 per cent of Android phones in the United States. In less than a week it has become the most downloaded app of the moment in Apples App Store and has started sucking7） time from our days—forty-three minutes on average， according to SimilarWeb8）， more than Snapchat and Facebook. It has taken over Twitter， caused roving9） bands of nostalgic obsessives to convene on10） public spaces， and created discontent in relationships. To say it has spread like wildfire is to exaggerate the power of wildfires.

For a moment， however， put aside the sudden revival of our interest in Pokémon and consider what this spurt11） tells us about the future of software and the nature of reality—and how they integrate into what we think of as entertainment.

Augmented reality is the “boy who cried wolf” of the post-Internet world—its long been promised but has rarely been delivered in a satisfying way. Augmented reality refers to a view of the real-world environment whose elements are overlaid （or augmented） with computer-generated images and sound. （It differs from virtual reality， where the real world is replaced by complete immersion in a computer-generated space.） I first fell in love with the idea of mixed-reality games in 2011， when I tried a beta version12） of the game Shadow Cities， developed by Grey Area， a company based in Helsinki. It used locations and people from your real life， and put them in a game-like environment placed over real maps. What got me was how the game turned my real life into an alternative universe， and turned the familiar into part of a fantasy. The game involved walking， which was an added bonus for someone who has struggled with his weight.

I was hooked， and since then have been paying close attention to augmented-reality applications. None of them have gone mainstream， even those developed by IKEA and Lego13） using augmented-reality technology from Metaio， a company that was later acquired by Apple. Over the past few years， I have seen many examples of companies that combine augmented reality， advertising， and sports， but most failed to impress me， because I couldnt figure out what they were doing for me. They didnt make me more productive， like Slack14） or Quip15）， and they didnt provide fun， like Facebook or Clash of Clans16）.

In 2012， Niantic created an augmented-reality game for Android called Ingress. It became a cult hit， and was released on the iOS platform in 2014. Niantic was looking for its next game when the April Fools Day joke became a viral smash17）. It was a sign of what people wanted. “We pitched18） that to the Pokémon Company， and what we found was that they were thinking along the same lines，” Hanke said.

Pokémon Go， which involves trying to “catch” Pikachu or Squirtle or other creatures with your smartphone， is an inherently social experience. You need to be walking around—on the streets， in public places—to catch the Pokémon. Open the app and， pretty much wherever you are， you could be alerted that there is a Pokémon in the vicinity19）. The other day， I had some time to spare at the San Francisco airport， so I started looking. An animated version of Google Maps popped up on my screen， along with indications that there might be Pokémon around. The more you move around， the more creatures you find. I found only one， but I got a good workout. More important， the game made me happy; it had served a real function.

Hanke has long been interested in mapping and the interplay of our physical and digital worlds. He was the founder of Keyhole， a startup that was acquired by Google and renamed Google Earth. During our conversation， he pointed out that Google Earth was made possible by a convergence20） of digital photography， broadband networks， mapping， and the small near-Earth satellites that emerged around that time. Augmented reality， he said， is on a similar track—powerful smartphones， faster and more robust networks， a new generation of computer infrastructure， and data collection are all converging.

For those who have been believers in augmented reality， these are exciting times. Riku Suomela joined Nokia Research in 1999 and started playing around with head-mounted displays21） to experiment with augmented reality. It was clear to Suomela that it would be a while before the technology went mainstream. “I have been thinking Pokémon Go could be the product that creates the market for augmented- and mixed-reality gaming， and I am optimistic this is happening now，” Suomela—who has since started a new company， Lume Games， which competes with Niantic—said. Ville Vesterinen， the co-founder of Grey Area， said in an e-mail that “now is an ideal time” for work on “l(fā)ocation-based games （you can call them AR if you like）.” He pointed out that the number of people with mobile devices has grown considerably since his company released Shadow Cities.

For the past few days， I have been playing Pokémon Go and thinking about what it means. This weekend I went to the recently opened San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and wanted to know everything about the art and various installations， beyond what was posted on the walls. I felt as if I should be able to lift my phone and get more details on the process of the creation of the art work， rather than having to type a search term into my browser. Pokémon Go had changed my expectations on how to access information. That shift in expectation， perhaps， is the games true importance.

I keep going back to Rainbows End22）， a book by the science-fiction writer Vernor Vinge23）. The book， published in 2006， is about a character recovering from Alzheimers disease and learning to deal with the world around him， but what stands out is the world Vinge created. In his fictional world， computing has become miniaturized24） to such an extent that its almost invisible， woven into bodies and clothing. People interact with computers via myriad gestures. Augmented-reality interfaces replace screens as we know them， making it simple to get access to schematics for an elevator， patient records， or a drawing to fix a car.

Rainbows End was set in San Diego of 2025. That might seem too soon， but the future often arrives suddenly. And disruption often starts as a joke.

起初，這只是個(gè)愚人節(jié)的玩笑。谷歌當(dāng)時(shí)發(fā)布了一段有趣的視頻，里面融合了谷歌地圖和《精靈寶可夢》的元素。這段于2014年4月1日發(fā)布的視頻猶如病毒一樣傳播開來，總共獲得了1800多萬次的點(diǎn)擊量。“于是我們就想，為什么不試著將其變?yōu)楝F(xiàn)實(shí)呢？”約翰·漢克說。漢克是Niantic公司的首席執(zhí)行官。當(dāng)時(shí)Niantic還是谷歌內(nèi)部的一個(gè)項(xiàng)目，負(fù)責(zé)開發(fā)一些利用增強(qiáng)現(xiàn)實(shí)技術(shù)和混合媒介現(xiàn)實(shí)技術(shù)的手機(jī)游戲。

兩年后，漢克和他的團(tuán)隊(duì)將這個(gè)玩笑變成了現(xiàn)實(shí)。7月6日，Niantic公司發(fā)布了Pokémon Go，一款鼓勵(lì)玩家走進(jìn)現(xiàn)實(shí)世界并用手機(jī)捕捉小精靈的游戲。此時(shí)的Niantic公司已經(jīng)脫離谷歌，成為一家獨(dú)立的公司。Pokémon Go發(fā)布的兩天內(nèi)，其在美國安卓手機(jī)上的安裝率就達(dá)到了5.16%。不到一周，該游戲就成為時(shí)下蘋果應(yīng)用商店里下載量最高的應(yīng)用，并開始消耗我們的時(shí)光——根據(jù)SimilarWeb的數(shù)據(jù)，人們平均每天會花43分鐘的時(shí)間在這款游戲上，超過了在Snapchat和Facebook上花的時(shí)間。該游戲已經(jīng)取代Twitter，使得大批四處游蕩的懷舊游戲迷們紛紛聚集到公共場所，還搞得情侶關(guān)系不和。如果說這款游戲如野火般蔓延，那是夸大了野火的威力。

不過，暫且拋開我們突然對小精靈恢復(fù)興趣這件事吧。我們還是思考一下這款手機(jī)游戲的突然大熱告訴了我們哪些有關(guān)軟件未來和現(xiàn)實(shí)本質(zhì)的事，以及它們又是如何融入我們所說的娛樂中去的。

增強(qiáng)現(xiàn)實(shí)技術(shù)是后互聯(lián)網(wǎng)時(shí)代“呼喊‘狼來了的少年”——一直以來，該技術(shù)都被認(rèn)為前景不錯(cuò)，但卻極少有令人滿意的成果出現(xiàn)。增強(qiáng)現(xiàn)實(shí)是指在真實(shí)世界環(huán)境中的元素上疊加（或者增加）由計(jì)算機(jī)生成的圖像和聲音。（增強(qiáng)現(xiàn)實(shí)不同于虛擬現(xiàn)實(shí)，在虛擬現(xiàn)實(shí)中，真實(shí)的世界會被取代，用戶完全浸沒在由計(jì)算機(jī)生成的空間里。）我最初迷上混合現(xiàn)實(shí)游戲是在2011年，當(dāng)時(shí)我試玩了《鏡像城市》游戲的測試版。這款游戲由位于赫爾辛基的Grey Area公司開發(fā)，會利用玩家在真實(shí)生活中的地點(diǎn)和人物，將玩家置于如游戲般的環(huán)境中，游戲環(huán)境則疊加在真實(shí)的地圖之上。這款游戲讓我著迷，因?yàn)樗盐业恼鎸?shí)生活變成了一個(gè)完全不同的世界，把我熟悉的一切都變?yōu)樘摶檬澜绲囊徊糠?。玩這款游戲需要步行，這對于正在和自身體重作斗爭的人來說是個(gè)額外的福利。

我為之癡迷，從此便一直密切關(guān)注著增強(qiáng)現(xiàn)實(shí)類的應(yīng)用。這些應(yīng)用中沒有一個(gè)進(jìn)入主流視野，即便是宜家和樂高研發(fā)的應(yīng)用也是如此。這兩家公司使用的是德國Metaio公司研發(fā)的增強(qiáng)現(xiàn)實(shí)技術(shù)，該公司后來被蘋果公司收購。過去幾年間，我見過許多公司融合了增強(qiáng)現(xiàn)實(shí)技術(shù)、廣告和運(yùn)動的案例，但大多很難打動我，因?yàn)槲覊焊鶅簺]搞明白它們在為我做什么。它們既不像Slack或Quip那樣使我的工作更富有成效，也不像Facebook或《部落沖突》那樣能給我?guī)砜鞓贰?/p>

2012年，Niantic公司為安卓系統(tǒng)設(shè)計(jì)了一款名為《虛擬入口》的增強(qiáng)現(xiàn)實(shí)游戲。該游戲風(fēng)靡一時(shí)，十分熱門，并于2014年在iOS平臺上發(fā)布。當(dāng)那個(gè)愚人節(jié)玩笑如病毒般瘋狂傳播時(shí)，Niantic公司正在尋找下一個(gè)游戲點(diǎn)子。而那段視頻預(yù)示了人們想玩什么樣的游戲。“我們將這個(gè)點(diǎn)子竭力推薦給Pokémon公司，結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn)他們的想法和我們一樣?！睗h克說。

Pokémon Go需要玩家設(shè)法用智能手機(jī)“捕捉”皮卡丘、杰尼龜或其他生物，這本身就是一種社交體驗(yàn)。你需要一直來回走動——到大街上、到公共場所去捕捉小精靈。基本上不論你在哪兒，只要打開游戲應(yīng)用，你就有可能收到附近有小精靈出沒的提醒。幾天前，我在舊金山機(jī)場有些閑散的時(shí)光可供消磨，于是我開始找小精靈。一幅動漫版的谷歌地圖赫然出現(xiàn)在我的手機(jī)屏幕上，上面附帶文字指示，表明附近可能會有小精靈。你四處走動得越多，能發(fā)現(xiàn)的生物也就越多。雖然我只發(fā)現(xiàn)了一只小精靈，但我卻得到了不錯(cuò)的鍛煉。更重要的是，這款游戲讓我感到快樂，它發(fā)揮了實(shí)實(shí)在在的作用。

一直以來，漢克都對地圖繪制以及我們的實(shí)體世界與數(shù)字世界間的相互影響感興趣。他是Keyhole公司的創(chuàng)立者，這家創(chuàng)業(yè)公司后來被谷歌收購，并更名為谷歌地球。在我們的交談中，漢克指出，谷歌地球之所以能成為可能，是因?yàn)樗Y(jié)合了當(dāng)時(shí)剛剛出現(xiàn)的數(shù)碼攝影、寬帶網(wǎng)絡(luò)、地圖繪制和小型近地衛(wèi)星技術(shù)。他說，增強(qiáng)現(xiàn)實(shí)也是沿著相似的路線發(fā)展起來的——該技術(shù)結(jié)合了功能強(qiáng)大的智能手機(jī)、更加快捷穩(wěn)定的網(wǎng)絡(luò)、新一代計(jì)算機(jī)基礎(chǔ)架構(gòu)以及數(shù)據(jù)收集功能。

對于那些堅(jiān)信增強(qiáng)現(xiàn)實(shí)技術(shù)能夠成功的人而言，這些都是激動人心的時(shí)刻。里庫·索梅拉于1999年加入諾基亞研究中心，開始搗鼓頭戴式顯示器，進(jìn)行增強(qiáng)現(xiàn)實(shí)技術(shù)的實(shí)驗(yàn)。索梅拉清楚地知道，這項(xiàng)技術(shù)還要過一段時(shí)間才會成為主流?！拔乙恢闭J(rèn)為Pokémon Go能夠成為一款為增強(qiáng)現(xiàn)實(shí)和混合現(xiàn)實(shí)游戲創(chuàng)造市場的產(chǎn)品，而這一切正在發(fā)生，對此我很看好。”索梅拉說道。索梅拉已經(jīng)創(chuàng)建了一家名為Lume Games的新公司，該公司是Niantic公司的競爭對手。Grey Area公司的共同創(chuàng)始人維勒·韋斯特瑞南在一封電郵中表示，對于開發(fā)“基于地理定位的游戲（如果你愿意，也可以稱之為AR），現(xiàn)在就是一個(gè)理想的時(shí)機(jī)”。他還指出，自他的公司發(fā)布《鏡像城市》以來，擁有移動設(shè)備的人數(shù)一直在大幅增長。

在過去的幾天里，我一直邊玩Pokémon Go，邊思考這款游戲的意義。這周末，我去了最近開放的舊金山現(xiàn)代藝術(shù)博物館，希望能了解現(xiàn)代藝術(shù)和各種不同裝置藝術(shù)品的方方面面，而不僅僅是那些掛在墻上的作品。我覺得我似乎可以舉著手機(jī)，然后就能了解到某件藝術(shù)作品創(chuàng)造過程中的更多細(xì)節(jié)，而無需再往瀏覽器里鍵入關(guān)鍵詞進(jìn)行搜索。Pokémon Go已經(jīng)改變了我對獲取信息方式的期待。這種期待的轉(zhuǎn)變或許正是這款游戲真正的重要性所在。

我最近總是重讀《彩虹盡頭》這部由科幻作家弗諾·文奇創(chuàng)作的小說。這本書于2006年出版，講述了一個(gè)得了阿爾茲海默癥的角色在康復(fù)后學(xué)習(xí)如何應(yīng)對周遭世界的故事，但書中最讓人印象深刻的是文奇創(chuàng)造出的那個(gè)世界。在他的虛構(gòu)世界里，計(jì)算設(shè)備變得小到幾乎看不見，并被植入到人體內(nèi)，或被嵌入衣服里。人們通過五花八門的手勢與計(jì)算機(jī)互動。增強(qiáng)現(xiàn)實(shí)界面替代了我們所知的顯示屏，使得訪問電梯圖紙、病人病歷或是繪制汽車維修圖變得輕而易舉。

《彩虹盡頭》的故事設(shè)定在2025年的圣迭戈。這個(gè)時(shí)間也許看起來離我們很近，但未來常常來得猝不及防。而技術(shù)的突破往往從一個(gè)玩笑開始。